Falling Silently
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: You never know how much you like someone until you watch them like someone else. Squall can't agree more with that; because of his own stupid fault, Rinoa only considers him her best friend now, nothing less and certainly nothing more. When she starts dating the mysterious new student named Terra, will Squall just let it happen or take matters in his own hands?
1. The Angel and the Lion

**A/N: This is my first FFVIII multi chapter story (and AU, too). I hope I'll do well enough. This was inspired by MonMonCandie's awesome story _"Sins Worth Breaking."_ You'll probably notice that...but maybe not. If you haven't read it already, you really should check it out!**

**A special thanks to M. L. Ayala (my beta reader), and MonMonCandie, for helping me make up my mind.**

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><p><em>~ Love never fails. ~<em>

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><p>It was a warm and sunny day, but unlike any other day, today was strangely and uncomfortably quiet at home. Sitting all alone in her bedroom, little Rinoa couldn't help but think that it was almost as if the weather wanted to mock her for how bad she felt right now. The little girl got off her bed and drew the curtains, blocking the sunlight that had invaded the room not too long ago. She went back to her bed again and fell face-first on her pillow. She stayed that way for a few seconds, until she couldn't breathe anymore. Then, she turned her head slightly, facing the bright yellow wall.<p>

How she hated that color now...

It was official now. Rinoa's parents, the famous, successful general Fury Caraway and the beautiful Julia Heartilly were divorced. Just like that. That resulted into a mad, sad and upset Rinoa. She was flat-out furious that her parents didn't believe it would be alright between them again. They couldn't just give up like that! Admittedly, she was only five years old but that didn't mean that she was too young to understand anything at all.

Rinoa had only five people in her class, including her, whose parents weren't divorced (...yet). Well, after today there would be only four left.

_It's probably my own fault_, she kept thinking, until tears started to form in her dark eyes, spilling over her pillow. _I'm the reason they don't want to live together._

She hated feeling this helpless, like all she could do was watch from the sidelines and hope it would be alright some day.

Rinoa heard how her bedroom door opened slowly, but she didn't bother to look up and see who it was. She didn't want to speak any of her parents and since she had no siblings, she was sure that it was either her Mom or her Dad. The door closed softly again and Rinoa guessed that whoever the person was, he or she left again after seeing her in her current state. It was better that way.

It seemed that the opposite was true when someone sat down on the edge of her bed. That person's weight made it sag slightly. The sweet aroma of her mother's (and her) favorite perfume filled Rinoa's nostrils when the woman moved her hand to stroke her daughter's long, black hair. Rinoa still didn't bother to face her. Not with those tears in her eyes.

If her shoulders hadn't been shaking slightly, accompanied by a suppressed, heartbreaking sob every now and then, Julia would have thought that Rinoa was sleeping.

It was silent between them for a while, but when the silence became so awkward that Rinoa couldn't stand it anymore, she asked, "Why does it have to be this way?"

Even though Rinoa's voice was muffled by the pillow, Julia had no problem hearing what she was asking. It was a question she had expected to hear from her.

"Because... I think that I've fooled myself long enough," the woman replied after a while, being very careful on how to phrase that.

The least she could do was making it sound less painful.

"I don't get it. Dad says he still loves you. Don't you love Daddy anymore?" was the immediate reaction.

"I do, dear. Very much. It's just that... everything changed between us at some point, and we couldn't stop it," Julia explained, sounding tired.

Rinoa pondered about these words for a while, before asking, "So you and Daddy fell out of love?"

"I guess you could see it that way... But one day you will understand all this, when you grow up."

Of course. That infamous sentence that every grown-up used to put children in their rightful places. Hearing those words from her mother made her blood boil. It felt as if she was failing her.

"So I don't have a say in this at all?" Rinoa shrieked, suddenly turning around in one swift move. This time she did face her mother, who seemed to be taken aback by her sudden outburst. "Doesn't it matter what I think?" she continued, her voice shrill.

"Sweetheart-" Julia started, only to be interrupted.

"No!" Rinoa yelled immediately, causing the woman to flinch. "You _can't_ leave Daddy just like that! What about us? We were..._are_ a family! You can't just throw that away! Don't you care about keeping this family together at all?"

Julia's hand tried to reach her so she could stroke her beloved daughter's hair again, but Rinoa swiftly moved away from her. A deep sigh escaped the woman's lips as a pained look appeared on her face. She hated seeing Rinoa in this state; her tiny hands clenched into fists, eyes all teary and a _furious_ look on her face. It gave her a sickly feeling in her stomach.

Julia got up and walked to the door, sensing that this was of no use.

Before she left, she turned around and said, "I know that it sounds impossible right now, but someday we will look back at this moment without being sad. I'm sure of that."

Well, at least she was right about one thing: it sure did sound impossible.

"Are you sad?" Rinoa whispered, before Julia closed the door.

"...More than ever."

With that being said, she left soundlessly, deciding that it was better to leave the toddler alone for a while so she could at least cool off a bit.

It was then that Rinoa had noticed how exhausted her mother was looking. Her dark hair seemed to be pinned into a messy ponytail, almost as if she didn't care what it looked like. And then her once warm, dark brown eyes. They had never looked this dull. To make matters worse, there were dark, purple-ish circles under her eyes. At once, she started to feel guilty about yelling at her mother like that. This wasn't her fault.

Rinoa just didn't get it. They said that love never failed. But if it didn't... then why was all of this happening?

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><p><em><strong>~ Three years later ~<strong>_

"Wait... what? But...but you promised you would spend the whole day with me, and me alone!" Rinoa sputtered, getting mad at the unfairness of it all.

She just couldn't believe that her father, General Fury Caraway and blah blah blah, had sacrificed this special father-daughter day for his work. Again! If she didn't know any better, the eight-year old would think that her father didn't like to be with her...

But why wouldn't he? He was her daddy, right? So he had to love her!

"I am sorry, Rinoa, but this is _really_ important," the man spoke, eyeing his young daughter apologetically.

_But did he mean it, too?_

"More important than your own daughter?" she bit back.

She narrowed her eyes at him, almost daring him to say yes.

"Of course not," he replied, but not quick enough to convince her. "I mean, it's important for this country and their people because this man might become the president someday. It's important to keep him as a friend, because who knows when it'll be of any use. So why don't you go outside for a while? I'll call you when the man's gone, okay? I'm sure you'll find staying here only boring."

Rinoa sighed, looking at the floor when she replied, "Alrighty, then."

Like she had any other choice. Nobody ever went against the orders of the General. In this mansion, he was a God.

Dad had changed since the divorce. A lot. But maybe the change had been before that. Maybe her mother had noticed that change. Maybe that was why she had fallen out of love with him. Because unfortunately, the change he had went through, wasn't a positive one. He didn't even tell her not to go too far! Mom always told her so because she said she cared about her and didn't want her to get lost.

"Well, I guess it's only you and me now, Mr. Leon," she said to the lion plushy in her arms.

After hugging it tightly, she decided to follow the orders of General Caraway, and she went outside. Who knew, maybe she would even like it.

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><p>To be honest, Squall had expected Deling City to be a little bit less... <em>boring<em>. Esthar was so much better than this place, and he wasn't only talking about the technology, or rather the lack thereof.

It seemed that his dad had lied to him once again, in an attempt to take his son with him on one of his many boring political business trips to the capital city of Galbadia. Well, he wouldn't get away with that this time. Sis was so lucky that she had a birthday party of one of her friends...

Okay, he had to admit that the trip with the train had been kinda interesting, if he forgot all about that annoying old lady who seemed to love pinching his cheeks till it hurt (that would certainly leave a bruise). The fact that Laguna had just let her do all that to him still made Squall angry, though. He wouldn't just get away with that one, either.

"Can I stay here outside while you're busy there?" Squall asked.

_Busy with Hyne knows what. He wasn't half as busy as now back when he was a journalist. He sure quickly changes from job. First a soldier, then a journalist, and now something in politics..._

At least Squall could be sure that nobody would choose him as a president if he ever wanted to be one. If they did, then the Estharians were even more stupid than he thought they were.

"Sure, just don't go too far or you might get lost."

Yeah, yeah. He wasn't stupid, he could take care of himself. Besides, as if he couldn't think of asking someone the way _if_ he got lost.

The sky was cloudless and so blue that it almost looked like it was artificial. That alone made his current mood improve, if slightly. He didn't know if it was just him, but the air seemed to smell differently here. Maybe a tad bit cleaner.

Squall was about to round the corner when he heard a loud voice. Subconsciously, he stopped so nobody would know he was there and listened to what they said.

"No Gil on you, huh? I guess we should take that little monster you've brought with you as a payment, then."

Whoever had said those things sounded really mean for his age.

"No, please give him back!" That last one was a girl's voice and she sounded pretty scared and desperate.

"No way. Now go away! If we ever see you here again..."

Squall decided to put an end to their bullying.

...And that was when he met _her_. Even though it didn't seem to be of any importance at that moment, he would never forget it and think about it a lot later on.

What he saw was a frightened girl with black hair and two boys, slightly older and much taller than him. The girl was desperately trying to get hold of what seemed to be a teddy bear, but one of the boys, a spiky-haired boy, held it high in the air, just out of her reach. The other boy, who had short silver hair, just laughed at the sight. It didn't take Squall long to get that the teddy bear belonged to the girl.

"You heard her, give it back to her," Squall said through gritted teeth.

Everyone turned their attention on him.

"Who the hell are you? Mind your own business!" the tallest of them said, giving him a glare.

However, Squall wasn't fazed. "Give it back and leave her alone," Squall repeated, now stepping closer to them.

"Or else?" the other boy demanded, defiantly.

"Don't make me say it again..." he threatened.

"If you think you're-"

Squall didn't give the tallest one the chance to finish his sentence and aimed the first punch at his face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the victim yelled, as he rubbed his jaw where Squall just had hit him.

"You asked for it," the other bully said in a low, dangerous voice, while the tallest one straightened again.

They both got into a fighting stance, approaching Squall slowly. Surprisingly enough, Squall was stronger than both of them. They didn't stand a chance to him. Squall was able to dodge most blows, whereas the two boys didn't.

The girl watched them fight and yelled an occasional, "Watch out!" or "Behind you!" to aid Squall, but in the last minutes she decided to join her unknown rescuer.

The fight didn't last too long after that, because both boys limped away after a last, "We'll get you next time!"

Squall just snorted. He would like to see them try. He had only scraped his knees and elbows but those bullies were clearly worse off, with their bloody noses and lips. Squall now turned his attention to the girl, who was watching him closely.

"Thanks," she said, breathless, giving him a small smile which he didn't answer.

"Don't mention it- whoa! Easy there!"

The girl had launched herself at him, almost making him fall over from the sheer force, and now she was hugging him tightly. Before Squall could get used to that, she let go of him abruptly. Squall scratched the back of his head, eyeing the girl in a dazed manner.

Well, this was certainly... awkward. Especially now that he was getting a little nervous, too.

"W-what?" Squall asked, blinking several times.

He was getting quite uncomfortable from those insanely curious eyes that never seemed to leave his. Why was she looking at him like that? It made her look like one of those curious little angels from Sis's schoolbooks. The fact that her creamy, yet somewhat pale skin contrasted her chocolate brown eyes and black hair with three light brown streaks on the side, only made Squall think of it more that way.

The girl slowly moved her free hand to brush one of Squall's many stray bangs out of his striking blue eyes. She was very careful, almost as if she was scared to startle Squall.

"You have really nice eyes, you know?" she commented after a short moment. "It's like I'm looking at a stormy sky."

"T-thanks..." He looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed, since nobody had ever said that to him. Not even his Sis. To divert her attention from him again, Squall inspected the "teddy bear" she was holding with her other hand and asked, dumbfounded, "A lion?"

"His name is Mr. Leon, and I happen to like lions!" she told him, defensive at once. Cocking her head to the side, she looked up at him, asking enquiringly, "You don't?"

"...I do, too."

"Yeah. I already thought you would. Aren't they like the cutest things ever? Not as cute as puppies, but still!"

Cute, though, wasn't exactly the first word Squall would use to describe those animals when he thought about them. Dangerous, yes. Scary, a lot. Cute? No way! He decided that this girl was rather peculiar, but not too weird for Squall to be creeped out by her. In fact, it was rather fascinating how carefree she seemed to be.

"...I guess," he finally replied, as a result of not knowing exactly what to say.

The girl hummed. "My name is Rinoa, by the way. Who are you?"

"...Squall."

"That's a nice name. I've never heard of it before, but it sounds tough, don't you think? So why are you so quiet? Are you shy?" she asked, a teasing tone evident in her voice.

Squall frowned at that. Honestly, why did this girl want to know so much about him? What did she care that he was so quiet, or even a little shy (which he wasn't!)?

"_No_, and stop staring at me."

"Sorry..." she said softly, before a gasp escaped her and her dark eyes widened in pure horror.

_Now what_, Squall wondered, sighing.

"You're bleeding!" she said, pointing at his left knee in shock.

"It's nothing," he swiftly said, looking at his knee as well.

Actually, it kind of hurt and the constant stinging was getting pretty annoying, but this Rinoa didn't need to know that. What if she started hugging him again…

_Would I mind if she did so?_ he wondered.

Wait, this was not the time to ask himself such strange questions. Of course he would mind-

"Nothing? That is _not_ nothing! It needs to be cleaned, otherwise it'll get infected and you could get sick from that. That's what my mom always says when I scrape my knee. C'mon!"

To his great surprise (even though he didn't try to show it), she took his hand and started heading towards the huge mansion. Her hand was soft and warm to the touch, probably much like an angel's.

"Where are we going?" Squall asked, bewildered, even though he didn't try to pull his hand away from her grasp.

"To my Dad's home, of course. It's not too far from here. We'll get it fixed soon," she assured him with another smile.

He trusted her enough to let himself be dragged by her like some rag doll. "Okay."

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><p><em>Hey, this is the mansion Dad had gone to. Does that mean that general Carryway... Care-away... or whatever that guy's name is, is Rinoa's father?<em> Squall thought, looking at the huge garden around them.

The garden was well kept and the grass was mowed. It even had a fountain in the middle of it in which a few birds were bathing at the moment, along with an impressive statue of a woman in a dress that seemed to be playing the piano. It was the latter that caught Squall's attention. He wondered who that woman was and why she was playing the piano. Was it a famous star?

When the front door opened, Squall turned his attention back to the mansion again. In front of him stood a smiling woman with her black hair tied and almost the same chocolate brown eyes as Rinoa's.

"Hey, sweetie. Did you have fun?" Julia greeted her daughter, as she opened the door for them.

"Mom? When did you get here?" Rinoa asked, surprised.

She finally let go of Squall's hand to be able to hug her mother.

"Oh, I just got here." Then, her gaze shifted to Squall and she smiled. "Hello. Are you a friend of Rinoa's?"

Was he? Squall didn't know.

"Yeah, he's my newest friend. He just saved me and Mr. Leon from a bunch of wicked bullies!"

Well, that answered the question pretty much.

Julia chuckled. "Is that so? You do seem like a very brave young man to me."

"He is! You just had to see how he kicked their butts! But now he's hurt. He won't admit that, though, but I know he is. Look, he's even bleeding! Can you help him and fix it, Mommy?"

Squall wondered how the woman could keep up with what Rinoa said. But then again, this was her mother. She was probably used to the bubbly girl.

"Sure, honey. If you'll both follow me..."

Julia turned and walked out of the hallway.

"C'mon, Squall!" Rinoa cried once again, as she took his hand again to lead him to their new destination.

The woman took it upon herself to take care of the little boy. Squall decided then that he liked her. He had never had a mother figure in his life (his mother had died giving birth to him), but now he knew it was nice to have a mother around.

"My, my. You really are a brave boy," Julia noted, when all he did was flinch (if her over-sensitive daughter had been in his place, she probably would have started crying by now and the whole city would have heard about that). "Rin, did you thank him for what he did, already?"

"Oh!" Rinoa shook her head, as she whispered, "Thank you for saving me. I'm glad to have you as a friend."

Squall was about to say that it really was nothing, but when Rinoa gave him a quick peck on his cheek, he was silenced effectively. Julia laughed softly at that but Squall didn't find any of it funny. He felt how his cheeks grew warm already.

"Well, well. What do we have here, Squall? Aren't you going to thank the lovely young lady for that kiss?" Laguna's voice suddenly boomed from out of nowhere.

He stood calmly in the doorway, watching his son with twinkling eyes and an amused expression on his face.

That was just great. Now _he_ knew about it, too. Squall was sure he wouldn't hear the end of it now.

The man's attention then shifted from Squall to Rinoa's mother. Strangely enough his eyes widened in surprise. Squall looked at the woman and it seemed that she was even more surprised than his father.

"Julia?" Laguna whispered, amazed, at the same moment when the woman, Julia, asked him in disbelief, "Laguna? Is that you?"

Wait, they knew each other? How? And since when?

"I can't believe that I'm seeing you here! How are you doing? You look great!" Laguna spoke, approaching her. He took both of her hands in his and said once again, "It's really great to see you again. You still look as young and amazing as last time I saw you..."

Julia laughed, looking flattered. Squall and Rinoa exchanged a glance, the latter looking as perplexed as the first one. Laguna really seemed happy to see her. Squall had honestly no idea why.

"That feeling is entirely mutual," she assured him with a smile. "I see you haven't changed a bit."

"That's a good thing, I hope?"

"Of cour-"

_"Ahem."_

At the sound of someone else clearing his throat, everyone in the room, including the children, turned around to see who it was.

Squall could tell that he was the only one who didn't recognize this important-looking man.

He had never seen him before, but Rinoa cleared things up when she said, "Dad!"

"Hello, Julia. What a pleasant surprise," was the first thing he said.

He smiled at her but the smile didn't reach his eyes. An awkward silence was what followed. For one reason or another, Laguna didn't dare to look at the man, while Julia looked almost as indifferent as a stone could be.

Eventually, Julia was the one to break the silence, saying, "I am sure it is. I already got Rinoa's stuff, so don't worry about that. Rin sweetheart, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Bye Daddy!"

Rinoa ran up to her father, who held her in his arms and patted her back, before she turned to Squall.

"Bye, Squall, and thanks again for saving me!"

After that, both mother and daughter left the building. Julia nodded at her ex-husband when she passed him, with him nodding back, almost as if they were far acquaintances. Squall couldn't help but notice how coolly they were behaving towards each other. Especially when he compared it with how open and heartily she had acted towards his father earlier.

After the front door closed, it was awfully quiet in the house, and everyone was aware of that fact.

"Well, I guess we should go, too. It was nice to speak with you, General."

Maybe it was just Squall, but it really felt like his father didn't know how fast he should get out of that place. And the general didn't stop him, either... What was going on here?

"So," the cheerful man spoke as soon as they were outside and out of earshot. "Rinoa seems like a very nice girl to me. Is she your girlfriend?"

Squall glared at her father in response, but instead of dropping the subject, Laguna laughed and cried, "That seems like a yes to me. My little boy grows up so fast!"

Normally, Squall would have become very mad at him, but now he opted for, "Rinoa's just a friend! There's nothing more to it. The only one who seems to have a girlfriend here is you, Mr. Loire!"

Laguna obviously didn't expect to hear that. He coughed, looking quite uncomfortable, before changing the subject, "I hope Ellone isn't missing us too much. I wonder if she had a good time."

Squall smirked at the uneasiness of his father. _Touché_. He wouldn't let go of it that easily, though.

"Who was that woman, anyway?"

"Well..." Laguna started.

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><p>"What? So that was the mysterious, unknown and handsome soldier you told me about so many times? I thought that was just another bedtime story," Rinoa commented.<p>

"No, he really is the one I sang about in that song. He was the one who listened to my singing every evening."

"Well... I get the handsome and unknown part, but mysterious... I dunno. I think Squall has more mysterious-ness in his pinkie than Mr. Laguana has in his whole body."

"Laguna, dear," Julia corrected her with a laugh. "Aw, why do I suddenly have the feeling that you've got a little crush on Squall?"

Rinoa blushed at that. "Mom! That's not true! I'm just very grateful that he saved me from those meanies. That's all."

"Of course, sweetheart."

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><p>Even when it was night and Squall lay in his bed, he couldn't help but think of that little bubbly, raven-haired girl that looked so much like an angel. He had never met someone like her before.<p>

He didn't know if he would ever see her again, but secretly, he fervently hoped he did. Even if it was only once and for a short time.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it so far. I know it seems to go so fast, but that's because I want to focus more on when they're 17. Oh, and ****I usually write chapters of 3300 words or so (although this one is a little longer), but what chapter length do you prefer? Just wondering.**


	2. A New Revelation

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites so far! That means a lot to me. I still have to get used to making longer chapters, though... And I forgot to mention it in the previous chapter, but this will be a slight crossover with the game Kingdom Hearts, although you don't have to have played the games in order to understand this story, since all I'm going to do is borrow some characters for minor rolls. However, don't be too surprised if you encounter a character from one of the other Final Fantasy games, since there are some FF characters in Kingdom Hearts, too. Also, I haven't really planned the end of this story, so this story can go to all directions, I guess. Without further ado, here's chapter two. Enjoy. ;)**

**Thanks: angelwings, MonMonCandie, LBWind, Spede, Cloudsangel22, and M. L. Ayala, my beta reader.**

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><p>~<em> "...We are sending you to the other side of the world, so you'll never be able to see Squall anymore," Julia noted, sighing wearily. ~<em>

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><p><em><strong>~ 4 years later ~<strong>_

"Angel-"

"No, I don't _want to!_" the twelve year old Rinoa whined stubbornly for the umpteenth time, stomping her feet and pouting in an unbelievably cute way.

Squall chose not to voice his thoughts this time - he liked to keep some things to himself, so all the silent brunette had said on this matter was a rather indifferent, "Whatever," accompanied by a shrug.

However, he couldn't help but agree with the raven-haired girl, despite the fact that she approached her mother's latest decision with a little bit too much drama. But then again, Rinoa wouldn't be Rinoa anymore if she didn't act that way and it was a good thing she did so, because now, Squall didn't have to say anything about the matter. And since all the attention was going to her, he was being spared from awkward questions.

"Sweetheart, you make this sound like we are sending you to the other side of the world, so you'll never be able to see Squall anymore," Julia noted, sighing wearily.

Surely, arguing like this with her beloved daughter was draining all her energy out of her, faster than she could say "Hello."

"Well, that's because it actually feels that way! Don't you get it? I can't fall asleep when Squall isn't anywhere near me. I mean, I've never slept all by myself in a different room ever since we moved in here and this house is so big that it's kinda scary at night," the girl countered, her dark, chocolate-colored eyes widening slightly in what Squall guessed was something close to fear.

A small smile was tugging at his lips, happy to hear that piece of information from Rinoa herself, but he quickly forced it down when he saw that his father was looking at him. The last thing he wanted, was for Laguna to become annoying again (and there wasn't much needed for that). Fortunately for Squall, his dad didn't seem to notice anything. Rinoa was right, though. As much as he had been against living together with Julia and her, he couldn't imagine a life without them anymore.

He could still remember the big fight he had had with his father almost a year ago when he had told him that an old good friend of his would move in with them for a while.

_"No,"_ had been Squall's answer, accompanied by a deep frown.

_"But Squall-" _Laguna had called, trying to reason with him, but it was all in vain.

"_I said: NO!_"

Even after this rather fierce outburst, Laguna had not given up yet. He had started mentioning all the positive things about his friend. However, the fact that it was a woman hadn't gone unnoticed by Squall. Apparently, Laguna had had the utterly strange idea that Squall and Ellone needed a woman in their lives to look after them, for whenever he would have to go on long business trips. A baby-sitter wouldn't suffice this time.

"_I don't need a new mother_," Squall had snarled at his father as a last response, making fists of his small hands.

He was flat-out furious, because he had been sure that this mysterious and unknown friend would eventually try to make him fall in love with her, so she could marry his dad. At least, that was what always happened in those cheap and stupid romance movies that Ellone always loved to watch (and he was sure that Laguna secretly liked them too).

_"But you shouldn't think of it that way. Nobody can replace Raine."_

To make a long story short, his friend, the famous idol singer Julia Heartilly, had moved in with them and she and Laguna had stayed friends. Nothing more. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised about that. After all, this was Laguna they were talking about. Who was crazy enough to fall in love with an idiot like him? He dared to give all his pocket money if he was wrong (and he doubted that he was wrong this time), but his Dad had probably put his Mom under a spell. There was no way that she would have married him voluntarily. It was either that, or he had forced her into a marriage, thinking that if he didn't do that, he would end up alone for the rest of his life...

Admittedly, when Squall had heard that he would have to share a room with this friend's daughter, something inside of him had snapped. How could he do this to him? He was his father for crying out loud! Sharing a room with a girl he didn't even know? What did he do wrong to deserve that? And it wasn't like the house was so small that they didn't have extra rooms. Squall had asked why Ellone couldn't share a room with her, but Laguna said that she was a teenager and she needed her space. Squall then had cursed the magazines his dad had read. What about his own space? Just because he was a kid didn't mean that he didn't have certain needs of privacy and stuff!

When Laguna had told him with a goofy smile that this was about the little girl that he had saved one year ago, Squall had almost started panicking, too. This was only another reason for him to be against all this. What if she would try to hug him every time she was alone with him, just because she was still so grateful? That would be terrible!

However, after a few days Squall had realized - to his great surprise, mind you - that he didn't mind her company, at all. Sure, she was loud and bubbly and very... extant, for the lack of a better word, but at least she knew when to stop (well, it probably wasn't that hard for her to guess when that was, since Squall had a talent for glaring, but still...). Although it would take him another few months to get completely used to her... and appreciate her... and-

"You can't force me, Mom!" Rinoa suddenly cried, putting her chin in the air and her tiny hands on her hips.

Julia and Laguna exchanged glances at that, an amused expression crossing on both their faces.

Laguna decided to be the gentleman and help Julia, by asking the children, "And what if one of you want to have a sleepover with your best friends? Will you kick the other out of his or her own bedroom? Imagine how annoying that is for that person."

As much as Squall hated to admit it, the man had a point. He wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea of having a sleepover in the same room with Selphie and Quistis, or worse: Yuffie Kisaragi. That girl was annoyingly hyper. Squall often found himself wondering where she got all that energy from.

"Well, then we could have a sleepover in one of the spare rooms. It'll only be for one night, anyway," Rinoa replied, in a matter-of-factly way.

She really didn't get why grown-ups had to be so difficult all the time. Didn't they ever get tired of that?

Once again, Julia and Laguna looked at each other, the former with a questioning look on her face, until Laguna nodded once.

"The answer is still 'no'-" Julia started.

"But _Mom_-!"

"Believe me, you'll be very thankful for this later. But if you really miss each other's company, then I guess that you could have sleepovers every now and then," she continued.

"That sounds great! And the first one will be tonight, end of discussion," Rinoa cried, happily.

Julia shook her head, but didn't say anything else.

"C'mon, Squall, we've got lots of work to do!" Rinoa called, rather excitedly.

She grabbed her friend's arm, but he resisted, making Rinoa bump into him.

"What do you mean with 'we'?" he asked, frowning.

"Well, you've got to help me with moving my stuff to a new room. Duh," she explained, tugging harder at his arm, but it was all still in vain.

"Why? It's _your_ stuff."

Rinoa sighed dramatically. Really, sometimes, Squall was so _slow_.

"Because you're supposed to act like a gentleman here and help your friends in need. I can't lift all those heavy boxes and stuff on my own," she reasoned.

Squall rolled his eyes, sighing. He knew that it was of no use, no matter what he said to her.

"Whatever. Just so you know, I'll only do it, because I'll finally have my room back, without your weird, scary girly things all around me."

Secretly he was happy that there still could be some sort of arrangement, though. He didn't want Rinoa to sleep in another room, but Julia and his Dad probably had a good reason for it, even though he couldn't think of any at the moment. He guessed that he just had to trust them with this.

"Hey! Get back, you meanie!"

Both parents looked at their child, as they ran out of the living-room after each other.

When Laguna was sure that they (and with 'they' he especially meant Squall) were out of earshot, he turned to Julia and admitted, "I had never expected Squall to be so close to a girl! I guess that your Angel is doing a pretty neat job of opening him up."

Julia nodded, smiling. "That's what you get when you make them share a bedroom. They're practically best friends now, joined at the hip."

However, those sleepovers became rarer and rarer throughout the years and when puberty hit and both Squall and Rinoa became aware of certain things about themselves and each other, things that they somehow hadn't noticed before, the sleepovers stopped, since they often felt awkward around each other. Suddenly, they found that it felt strange for them to sleep in the same room, almost inappropriate. Neither of them complained about that, either, because it was then that they realized why their parents had wanted them to have their own bedrooms.

This didn't mean that their friendship didn't grow. In fact, it was the other way around. They always stuck together and throughout the years, they even became inseparable.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~ 3 years later ~<strong>_

Today had been an overly quiet day, but it was nothing compared to the stillness Squall was faced with, as soon as he got home. He guessed that Laguna and Julia weren't home yet, otherwise he would have heard his Dad from miles away. And Sis was tutoring someone from school, so she wouldn't be home for at least another hour or so. As for Rinoa, she was spending her time with her boyfriend Seifer Almasy, again. To say that Squall didn't trust that guy was a big understatement. Seifer was bad news, he always was and probably always would be. Everyone seemed to know that, except Rinoa. He had a certain aura around him that just didn't feel good. And he looked like a player, too. Why was it that Rinoa seemed to like rebels with a badboy attitude as of lately? Maybe it was just a certain period in her life?

Running a hand through his brown locks, he decided that it was of no use to keep wondering this. It only made his own blood boil. He truly hated Seifer. Unfortunately for him, he turned out to be one of those guys who weren't scared of him at all. He had tried to intimidate him in several ways (just like he had done with all of Rinoa's previous boyfriends at one point in his life), but Seifer just ignored it and smirked at him in response every friggin' time. But one day, he would make sure to punch that ugly smirk off his face.

Squall hung his black leather jacket on the peg in the hallway and took off his dito colored boots. He decided to make use of the fact that nobody was at home and went to his room upstairs to take his laptop with him and sit downstairs with it. When the male teen came back to the living room, he turned the device on. While waiting for it to start up (he hated how slow that thing was), he went to the kitchen and reheated the macaroni leftover of yesterday in the microwave. Apparently, his boredom had made him extra hungry today.

When he was done, he walked back to his laptop again. Seeing the wallpaper, Squall couldn't help but smile. The wallpaper was a photo of Rinoa and him, with Rinoa having put an arm around his neck. He had been trying to hide the forming smile on his face, but Selphie still had managed to catch it in this photograph and immortalize the moment. That girl was really fast, he had to give her that.

He sighed. He barely spent time with Rinoa anymore ever since she and Seifer started dating (which was exactly two months ago). He really missed his best friend. It would be a lie if he said that he wouldn't mind it if those two broke up soon...

Squall had barely touched his food, when he heard the front door open and close. Judging by loud noises that came along with it, it was Laguna. Squall rolled his eyes. At times like these, it was very hard to believe that he had such a... moron as a dad. What was even harder to believe, was that Rinoa and Julia actually liked him, a lot even. Women... he would probably never understand what was going on in their heads.

It was a good thing that his father wasn't a spy from profession, because Squall knew that he would really suck at keeping himself hidden and unnoticed from the enemies. He was just too loud for it.

His presumptions about who was home now had been right. Unfortunately.

"Hey, Squall. Didn't expect to find you at home today... Mmm, I smell macaroni," was the first thing the man said, as he entered the living room.

_Good for you_, Squall thought, sarcastically, not looking up from the screen.

"Where are Julia and Rinoa?" Laguna asked.

"Out," was the curt reply.

"I see. So how was your day?"

"..."

It seemed that Laguna hadn't taken the hint that Squall wanted to ignore him.

Laguna shifted slightly in his place, curiously looking at the back of his unresponsive son. "Squall?"

Squall hoped that at least one of them would be back soon (preferably Rinoa, but he knew that that was impossible, since she wouldn't leave her boyfriend alone for one second if she didn't have to), before he would lose his temper. There was a reason why he considered changing his last name from 'Loire' into 'Leonhart,' his mother's maiden name, as soon as he would be an adult. He hadn't even finished his thought, when the front door opened and closed for the second time within three minutes.

_That has to be Julia_, he thought, not bothering to look up for confirmation.

"Hey, Rinoa! Just in-"

When Laguna had said her name, Squall had instantly looked up, as if he got an electric shock. It was something that always happened automatically... and he could almost swear that his heart had stopped beating. Rinoa was in tears. Her eyes were red and puffy, which indicated that she had cried a lot before she had arrived here. Her lower lip was trembling and she was shaking visibly. She had never looked this miserable before, but... to Squall, she looked beautiful right now, in a raw way.

"Rinoa, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Laguna asked, clearly in shock.

Squall couldn't blame the man. Rinoa hardly ever cried, and even when she did, she made sure that she was alone. Rinoa put her hands in front of her eyes to hide the tears that were already seen by all of them.

She whimpered. "I-it's over... between me and Seifer..."

"Huh, why?" Laguna asked, utterly confused.

At that moment, Julia happened to come home, too. The radiant smile on her face disappeared when she entered the room and saw her daughter crying.

"Hon, what happened?" was the first thing she asked, immediately walking up to her to catch her in a hug.

"H-he was seeing s-someone else, a-all this time... so I broke up with-with him," she said, her voice strained.

That was when it became too hard for Rinoa to speak and she broke down into sobs.

"Oh, sweetheart," was all Julia said, tightening the embrace.

Squall, being the only one who still hadn't said a word, abruptly got up from the sofa and walked towards the front door, with only one thought on his mind, _He would pay for this..._

"Squall, where are you going?" Laguna asked, but Squall didn't reply.

He grabbed his black leather jacket and slammed the door shut behind him. He had some sort of haze in front of his eyes. If that jerk thought he could cheat on Rinoa and get away with it that easily, then he was wrong. It was a good thing that Squall knew where he always hung out after school, so he didn't have to search for him that long.

It wasn't that hard to spot the guy, either. Squall would recognize that trench coat of his anywhere. Just like he had expected, the blonde teenager was sitting on one of the benches on the schoolyard, all alone for a change. That was only a good thing.

As soon as Seifer noticed the teenager approaching him, he got up from the bench, asking with a lazy grin, "Puberty Boy, what are _you_ doing here?"

Squall's answer came as a direct attack; he aimed a punch at Seifer, hitting the side of his face, near his jaw.

"What the hell is your problem?" Seifer yelled immediately, as he stood up.

The instant Seifer was on his feet again, he lost his temper.

Cold, stormy eyes met bright green ones, glares matching as Squall replied with, "_You_ are my problem, Almasy. Do you have any idea how much you hurt her? She doesn't deserve a scum like you."

"What are you, her bodyguard? Her father? Or did you decide to play her Knight now? Mind your own damn business, Leon-"

Seifer couldn't finish his sentence, because, once again, Squall punched him, this time in his stomach. Seifer groaned, doubling over and grasping his stomach.

"Rinoa _is_ my business, Seifer," he spat.

Squall wanted to strike again, but Seifer was too quick this time by a punch of his own. Struggling to his feet, Squall made sure that that one blow was swiftly followed after another one, and soon enough, it escalated into a rough fistfight in which both Squall and Seifer were rolling over the hard floor...

* * *

><p>"I'm really starting to get worried about Squall now. He didn't even take his phone with him. What in Gaia's name had gotten into him?" Laguna cried, restlessly pacing back and forth into the room. Turning to Rinoa he asked, "Don't you know where he might be?"<p>

The young girl frowned, slowly shaking her head. "No..."

It was almost an hour ago when Squall had marched out of the house to go to Hyne knows where and he still wasn't back. As if on cue, Squall decided that moment to enter the house, taking his sweet time to take off his jacket and his shoes, before walking straight upstairs, heading for his room. However, now that Laguna listened more closely, it sounded like he was practically dragging himself upstairs. Something was wrong...

"Squall? Where are you going?" Laguna asked. "Squall!"

When he didn't get any answer back, he decided to go after his son to see with his own eyes what was wrong. Rinoa and her mother soon followed suit, sensing that Squall wasn't okay.

They got to see what had happened when they reached Squall's bedroom. Judging from all the bruises, small cuts and abrasions he was covered in, Squall had been in a rather nasty knuckle fight. His lower lip was still bleeding and Rinoa could see from the deep scowl on his face that he was in pain, despite the fact that he didn't say anything. Laguna kept firing questions at him, which he didn't bother answering, while Julia took care of his wounds, making him flinch a couple of times. If the situation hadn't been this serious, Rinoa would have thought it was funny how Squall was ignoring a panicking Laguna. Those two were personality wise so different from each other that sometimes it was hard to believe that Squall wasn't actually adopted.

The strangest thing was that during all this time, he hadn't spared her a glance and something told her that he was doing it deliberately. What could it be that he was hiding from her?

* * *

><p>It was fairly late at night, almost half past ten. Squall just couldn't sleep. His muscles still ached and too much had happened. He felt really bad for Rinoa experiencing heartbreak for the first time. She really (had?) liked him, but she was better off without the jerk. If only she could realize that, too...<p>

Still, that hadn't stopped him from beating the shit out of her ex. He wasn't going to deny it; that had felt really _good_. It was worth all the pain he was in now...

He wondered how she was doing. She hadn't come down to have dinner earlier, leaving him all alone with Julia and his annoying father who couldn't shut up about his bruises. Not that he had paid attention to what he was saying.

Would she be asleep already? Probably not. But maybe she had cried herself to sleep by now. That thought gave him a sickly feeling in the stomach. Perhaps he should take a quick peek, just to make sure that she was fine. That wouldn't hurt, right? Besides, if she still happened to be awake, then maybe having each other's company would help them to get sleepy, even if it was only a little bit. Tossing and turning in his bed for the rest of the night wasn't that useful, anyway.

Getting out of his bed noiselessly, Squall left his own room and went to Rinoa's. Taking a deep breath, he softly opened her bedroom door and took a quick peek inside. It was quite dark in there, but he could still spot a dark figure lying in her bed. He wondered what he should do next. Should he leave again, since she seemed to be asleep? Or should he check first, to be entirely sure?

"Who's there?" he heard her whisper. "Squall?"

Okay, so maybe she was still awake. That changed everything.

"Yeah, it's me. I just wanted to check if you were... okay."

As soon as that left his mouth, he realized how stupid it sounded. Really, check if she was _okay_? She wasn't _dying_...

Rinoa shifted slightly in her spot, turning to face him, as she replied. "I'm fine. Can't sleep, though."

That didn't come as a surprise to him. To be honest, he hadn't expected otherwise. He ran a hand through his dark locks, a new habit of him for when he was a little nervous. Well, it was pretty awkward to just stand there and stare into the darkness to the point where he thought her face was.

"Come in, Squall. And close the door behind you, before the room gets cold."

He swiftly did as she was told and turned around again. In the meantime, Rinoa had put on the night lamp on her nightstand. Next, she moved over slightly and tapped on the bed, indicating for Squall to sit down. Once again, he did as he was told. The bed sank in a little under his weight. A slightly awkward silence was what followed. From the corner of his eyes he could see how Rinoa was tucked in completely, until her chin. She was looking at him inquisitively, her dark chocolate-colored eyes shimmering brightly in the little light that the night lamp provided.

"So who was it that did this to you?" she asked softly, looking up at him, and then at his gloveless hands.

"..."

By the looks of it, Squall knew exactly what she was referring to, because he frowned and swiftly looked away. Suddenly, it seemed that he was very interested in his knees, as if he had never seen them before. Rinoa took this as a hint that he didn't want to talk about it. She sighed lightly.

"You don't want to say, huh?"

Again, she was met with pure silence. He was still in a serious staring contest with his knees. Rinoa could think of only one reason why Squall didn't want to say with whom he had fought earlier today. It was just too obvious.

"Was it Seifer?" she guessed, her voice soft.

Squall didn't reply immediately, and even when he did, he didn't look at her, already feeling how his cheeks started coloring. "...Yeah."

"Oh..."

At that, she sat up straight in a sudden movement. She didn't say anything for a while, staring off into space in deep thought. She didn't notice that Squall, who was scared that she would be mad with him now, was watching her all this time. Then, without any warning, Rinoa launched herself to him and gave him a bone-crushing hug. That said more than enough. Squall breathed again, wondering why he had been holding it all this time. He returned the embrace, but winced because of his minor wounds and bruises. Those had made him extra sensitive.

Rinoa, who only then realized why Squall had tensed, swiftly muttered "S-Sorry."

She wanted to move away again, but Squall tightened his grip on her, not wanting to let go of her yet. "That's okay, Rin."

Rinoa let her head rest on his shoulder, closing her eyes. She didn't know why, but in Squall's present, she always felt calm and safe, as if nothing could ever harm her. She guessed it was because she trusted him so much. She had known him for years now. There had been a time that they even shared a room together.

Squall was taking deep breaths, savoring how Rinoa's hair smelled like the most fragrant flowers and fruits he knew.

After a short while she said, "Well, then I hope that at least he's worse off?"

Squall snorted, amused. "Of course he is. He has a blue nose and I might even have broken his eye."

Rinoa laughed at that, a genuine, pure sound. It lit up her face for a second, until she remembered why she was upset in the first place.

At that moment, something else seemed to cross her mind. "Squall, I think you mean-"

"I know what I mean," he swiftly said, the corner of his mouth lifting up in the tiniest of smiles. After all, he had made that mix-up on purpose, in hopes of making her smile and it seemed that it was working. "I should go now. You need to sleep."

Squall got up from the bed to leave the room again, but Rinoa's pleading voice stopped him, along with her grabbing his hand. "Stay. Please. Only until I fall asleep."

He hesitated slightly, before finally giving in. Without saying anything, he decided to sit on the edge of her bed again, facing her.

"Thanks," she whispered, smiling up at him.

"Don't mention it."

After those three words, it was silent between them again. Before knowing what he was doing, he started stroking her long black hair. It was soft and silky under his touch, just like it had always been. Whether Rinoa was surprised at this or not, was hard to tell, because she knew very well how to hide it from him.

Squall was so different from Seifer and yet so alike, Rinoa mused. They both didn't back away from a challenge, no matter what prize it would cost. Both were stubborn as a mule, too. But where Seifer was often extremely reckless, - causing a lot of trouble, not only for everyone around him, but for himself, too - Squall was the direct opposite. Squall was more calculating. He thought at least a dozen times about something before he finally made a decision. Seifer would only do something if he got something back for it. Squall wasn't like that at all. Squall was sweet, caring (although he hated to admit that), funny... Rinoa couldn't imagine a more perfect best friend.

"Aren't you hungry?" Squall suddenly asked, remembering that she hadn't eaten anything for at least five and a half hours.

Rinoa looked up at him again, catching his solemn stare. "No, don't worry about-"

She stopped mid-sentence when right at that moment, her stomach growled. The silence in the room made it look like an extra loud sound.

Squall smirked slowly, causing Rinoa to blush from embarrassment. "I see what you mean, Rin... Or should I say '_hear_'?"

"...You heard that, didn't you?" she asked, not looking at him as she did so.

Was it just her or was it very warm in her room all of a sudden?

"Yes, you liar. Come on, I'll fix you something to eat," he said, standing up from the bed and beckoning her to follow him, before leaving the room.

Secretly thankful and utterly surprised, Rinoa climbed out of her bed and silently followed him to the kitchen downstairs. It was eerily quiet in the house. The lights were all out. Rinoa guessed that her parents were fast asleep already. Not being the type who liked the darkness, she stayed as close to Squall as she could, holding his arm as he led the way. The brunet didn't seem to mind that, because he didn't try to pull his hand out of her grasp. He was the one who put on the lights in the kitchen.

"Sit down," he said, tapping softly on the wooden kitchen table with his flat hand.

Rinoa did as she was told. She didn't question him, but kept watching his back, curiously, as he got something out of the refrigerator. It sure was something for Squall to act like this, all talkative and nice, even if it was to her. It was new and surprising, to say the least. All in all, it was a pleasant change and she hoped that he would stay that way.

"So what are you planning to cook for me?" she asked, her elbows leaning on the table, with her head resting on her hands, as she gave him a questioning look.

"That depends on what you prefer, cold pizza leftovers, cereal, or eggs and bacon?" When he saw the disbelieving look that she shot him, he continued, "What? I'm only fifteen. You're lucky enough that I'm able to cook those things, otherwise you would've starved."

At this Rinoa started to laugh. "And here, I was half-expecting a five star meal. Very well, then, chef cook. I'll go for the eggs and bacon. Need any help with that?"

"...I think I'll manage," he muttered, with a roll of his stormy blue eyes. "Besides, I wouldn't want you to burn the whole place down with your _amazing_ cooking skills."

"Hey! You're lucky that there isn't anything here to throw at you, Squall Loire!"

Once again, he rolled his eyes at her, but when he caught her smile, he couldn't help but do so, too. At least he had made her forget about Seifer, even if it was for a short while.

* * *

><p>It was only a few days after that... incident with her, Squall and Seifer that something inside Rinoa's head fell into place, like a missing puzzle piece. It was hard to believe that she hadn't realized it earlier. However, the conclusion that came with it didn't exactly make her happy. It was more on the contrary, because... it changed everything between her and Squall now that she was slowly falling in love with Squall and couldn't stop it. Shit...<p>

She was supposed to be his best friend, and vice versa... Double shit.

How could she ever handle this? She did want to be more than friends, but what if Squall didn't feel that way about her? What if she told him how she felt about him and he would say that he didn't want to have anything to do with her? As much as she loved him she didn't want to ruin their friendship, either, so what should she choose? For weeks, no, _months_ even, she had been thinking whether she should tell him about her feelings or not.

Truth was that she had tried ignoring it, but every time someone even mentioned his name, her heart would start beating frantically and she would start stuttering and acting like a total klutz. Soon, she had learned that she couldn't ignore such feelings. Rinoa wouldn't be surprised if her other friends were suspecting something, especially now that she was avoiding Squall at all costs. At least Squall hadn't noticed anything yet. At least, that was what she thought, because he never said anything about it.

Four months later, Rinoa had made her decision after many, many sleepless nights. All she had to do now, was wait for Squall to come back from school. Then she would tell him everything and hope that he would still want to see her afterwards.

"Ugh... this has to _stop_!" Rinoa groaned, grasping her stomach where the butterflies had come to live once again.

Oh, how she hated it, how every single thought of hers led to only one person: Squall Loire. If only he knew what he was doing to her. On second thought, she was more than glad that he didn't. It only would have made things more than awkward between them.

As if on cue, she heard how someone put a key in the lock of the front door. That same door opened and judging from the slow, heavy footsteps, it was Squall who had come home. He seemed to be all alone, too. At once, Rinoa's heartbeat skyrocketed and adrenaline started flowing through her veins at the thought of being alone with him in one room. That hadn't happened for a while, she had made sure of that for the past few weeks. It wouldn't be long until he would see her sitting here all by herself and then she had some explaining to do.

"Oh, Hyne..." she muttered, gulping.

Suddenly, her throat was feeling dryer than a desert. This was it. It was now or never and that thought alone made her more nervous than ever. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but it was in vain.

At that moment, Squall chose to step into the living-room, his stormy blue eyes immediately resting on her and locking with her dark chocolate like ones. For her, it felt as if the hunter, in this case a lion, had found its prey and wasn't planning to let it go.

His eyes narrowed slightly when he said, "Rinoa, we need to talk."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I didn't want to stop there at first, but then I thought, hey, why not be a little evil? XD Anyways, thanks for reading! Hope you liked it. :) I have to say that I hadn't planned to write that last piece and I kept wondering if I should change it or not. If you have any suggestions, ideas or comments, don't hesitate to let me know, I'm all ears. ;)**


	3. I Love You, You Love Me Not?

**A/N: I just realized that I have 12 unfinished stories to finish. O.o That's like 11% of the stories I wrote on this site. That's why I would really appreciate it if you could vote for my poll (if you haven't done so yet) so I know on which stories to concentrate first... Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to start writing this story. Oh well, at least now I have an excuse as to why there are slow updates. Enjoy. ;)**

**A big 'Thank You' to: Ty-Lea Rose Yuko, Squall. Is. The. Best, LBWind, Funk3y Fr3sh, MonMonCandie, midnight. cowgirl, TheLionofSorrow, Cloud's kid 1, FifteenWishes, and M. L. Ayala, my beta reader (what would I do without you? :P ).**

* * *

><p><em>~ "Quit this rubbish! Why are you avoiding me Rinoa? What's going on? What are you hiding from me?" ~<em>

* * *

><p>It had been all silent in the room. Too silent for comfort. Rinoa had almost been able to taste it, as thick as it was, until...<p>

_"Rinoa, we need to talk..."_

That one sentence practically paralyzed her. There was only one thought that crossed Rinoa's mind at that moment: he was suspecting something. He sounded so serious that that had to be the only explanation. The question was, how in the world did he find out about it? Was her pokerface really that bad or did their friends tell him about it?

"Uhm..." The look in Squall's eyes was so solemn that for a moment, Rinoa didn't know what to say. Since when had his eyes become so depressingly grey, like the silence before the storm? And more importantly, why didn't he look away from her? When she regained her voice again, she asked with a voice that was an octave higher than normally, "Oh? What is it?"

She bit her lower lip. The nervousness in her voice was too obvious. He had probably heard it, too. To add insult to injury, she could feel how the tension in the room increased with every second that passed in pure silence. If she stayed here any longer, then things could get really wrong...

"You have some explaining to do," Squall replied, with a cross of his arms, apparently not planning to look away from her anymore.

Rinoa pointed at herself. "M-me?"

"Yes, _you_."

Strangely enough, this suddenly reminded her of that famous, and her favorite childhood chanting game about cookies. _Who me? Yes, you! Couldn't be! Then who?_

Wait... where had _that_ even come from? Rinoa shook her head, trying to get rid of those silly thoughts bothering her. She couldn't use those right now. She needed to focus on what she was about to do instead.

For Rinoa, it felt like Squall's eyes were slowly burning holes into her face, what with the intensity he was staring at her. So she did the only thing she could possibly think of to give herself some time to recover.

"Do you want to drink something?" she asked, quasi-cheerfully, already getting up from the sofa to make a quick dash to the kitchen, her safe haven.

She hadn't set more than maybe three little steps, before Squall expertly took a hold of her upper arm and turned her around (a little harshly, too. That would probably leave her some bruises, but he had no choice) so she had to face him fully. "Quit this rubbish! Why are you avoiding me Rinoa? What's going on? What are you hiding from me?"

His mouth was a thin, firm line and as expected, his trademark frown wasn't missing on his face.

_He knows!_ was all the raven-haired teen could think about for a moment, as she felt how her panic started to rise. _He knows, but he just wants to hear me confirming it..._

She gulped, averting her gaze. Why was this so difficult?

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that..." she admitted, somewhat shyly. "You might want to sit down, though."

She pointed to the sofa near them, still not looking at him. Squall hesitated at first, but eventually did as he was told, his eyes never leaving hers as she took place next to him, not too far away to make it look all awkward (that was the last thing they needed now), but not too close, either. Rinoa silently thanked the gods for that. She needed a little bit space between them thanks to her unpredictable teenage hormones. Things would really get out of hand if she suddenly kissed him, or something. Squall didn't say anything and Rinoa took this as a hint to start talking and explain herself.

_Explain myself? I make it sound like I did something terrible... something so wrong that it shouldn't be mentioned at all. What's wrong about falling in love with your best friend?_

"Well, truth is that I... I uh..." Rinoa looked around, trying to come up with the right words but failing miserably, "I kinda sorta..."

"Yes?" Squall gently ushered, wondering why she couldn't just spit it out already.

She made him only worry more about her this way. It was nothing for Rinoa to be this nervous. She almost made it look as if she had committed a crime... killed a person, or maybe robbed a bank. He almost had to laugh at that. The last person he always expected to do such a thing was the raven-haired girl sitting next to him. Rinoa was too much of a goody two-shoes to do something that wrong. Yet, it would explain why she had been avoiding him for the past weeks.

Squall just didn't understand. They had been so close for the past years, joined at the hip, but now... Something about Rinoa had changed, he had noticed it right away, even though she probably thought that he hadn't. But how could he _not_ notice it? It wasn't only in the way she looked at him; troubled, almost _scared_, as if his presence alone terrified her beyond imagination, but she had become quite distant, too, as though she didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. The question was, why?

Squall had no idea what he had done wrong according to her, but he was willing to apologize for it if he had to. He just hoped that she still wanted to be best friends with him, despite whatever had upset her. Was it his personality? He knew that he sometimes was a little harsh and acted like he didn't care, but if there was one person who knew that he didn't mean it, it had to be her. Perhaps she was fed up with him? No, that didn't make sense at all; Rinoa had been the first person who had accepted him the way he was. She was the first girl he had let in into his life. She meant the world to him, even though she probably had no idea. Sometimes it made him wonder what he meant to her. Did he have a special place in her heart, or was he just another random friend of hers? One she had to live with, whether she wanted to or not?

"I don't really know how to say it," she admitted then, after another few seconds of fruitlessly struggling with her words.

"Take your time. It's Friday, anyway."

To both of their great surprise, Rinoa giggled at that. She hadn't expected to be able to do that, but maybe it was just the nerves that made her do so. She knew what he meant by that, though. Squall wasn't really the type to go out on Friday nights and he didn't have homework for the next day, either (since it was Saturday), so he literally had all time in the world... unfortunately.

"I just..." She sighed, looking at the palm of her hands so her midnight black hair became a dark curtain that hid her face (just in case she would start blushing, which she knew she would soon. Squall just had that effect on her). "I really, _really_ like you. A lot."

"I guess we have something in common then, because so do I," the brunet male assured her.

Whatever it was that was bothering her, it had to be pretty serious if she brought that up... She hadn't accidentally broken any of his belongings, had she?

Rinoa gave him a sidelong glance, smiling sadly, because he didn't get it. "What I actually meant to say with those words is... Squall, I'm in love with you."

The last five words echoed in his head, driving away all of his other thoughts. He blinked a couple of times, giving the female teen an utterly dumbfounded look. It took him a moment to process this little piece of information and for the longest of times, he was silent. All he could do, was staring at her blankly, which made her almost shrink back into the cushions. Squall didn't notice any of his, his thoughts running a mile per minute. How was this possible; Rinoa had a crush on him? Was that why she had avoided him for the past months?

Then, after what seemed to be ages, he let out a rather dry, "..._Oh_."

Rinoa had been prepared for the most weirdest reaction, but she certainly hadn't expected to hear such a short, impassive response. Oh? That was really all he had to say after such a long moment of silence? _Oh?_ Here she was, pouring her heart out to him, by telling him her greatest, deepest secret and embarrassing herself, and all he could say was 'Oh?' This made her a little mad at him. A little bit more reaction than that would have been more than welcome. He sounded too uninterested to care this way.

She didn't know why, but she started talking again. It kind of felt as if she felt like she had to explain herself some more.

In a soft voice, she started, "It started only a few months ago, after I dumped Seifer when I found out that he was... you know. I was so sad and done and you helped me forget him so easily. You were just so... _so_-"

"Rinoa, listen..."

The raven-haired girl abruptly closed her mouth. That was a bad sign. The tone of his voice, stating that he didn't tolerate this, the fact that he interrupted her and the way he paused after those two words, as though he didn't know how to continue, wasn't indicating that he would say something positive. He was probably wondering how he should tell her off without hurting her feelings in the process. Suddenly, she got scared for what she might hear. She wondered if she should get up and just leave the room and never look back to this day again...

"Rin, I'm flattered. I really am. But to be honest, I harbor no feelings for you romantically and it would be unfair to you if I said that I did. You deserve someone who gives you as much love as you give him. I'm really, really sorry... But we're still friends, right?"

So much for hoping for more. Instead, she got a slap in the face, quickly followed by a stab in her side with a blunt knife. Rejecting someone, only to tell them that they still could be friends felt like your dog died and your mom telling you that you could still keep it, despite the fact that it was useless. Rinoa was more than aware of how the tears were already starting to form in her eyes, but she blinked them away rapidly. She would _not_ cry in front of him if she could stop it. She wouldn't lose that little bit of pride that she still had for him if he didn't want her, anyway.

"S-sure!" she choked out, forcing herself to look at him and smile with what felt like watery eyes.

"Good."

Squall really looked relieved that it had all went so easy, without any teardrops in sight (...yet?). He put a gloved hand on her shoulder and squeezed it softly, but Rinoa didn't know what to make of this kind of gesture, so she didn't move at all. Did he feel sorry for her, or was he just glad that this was over with? It was probably a combination of both. Suddenly, she didn't want to be in the same room with him anymore. She didn't need his pity for her. She actually didn't need anything coming from him.

"I really do care about you and I guess I could say that I love you, but just not in _that_ way."

"No, really," she quickly said, raising her hands. She didn't need to hear more, the message had been crystal-clear. "It's alright. I was just..." stupid enough to think that this could become something more... "I'm glad we're friends."

Squall eyed her for a moment, as if he was trying to read her mind, before he spoke, "Me too..."

An awkward silence was what followed, until Rinoa had the guts to break it. "Well, I'm going to do some homework, 'cause I'm falling behind. See ya."

She sent a last smile his way and then got up, heading upstairs.

"Yeah... see ya," Squall muttered, but probably too soft for Rinoa to hear.

He was more than glad that Rinoa wasn't upset about the way this had gone. Who had ever thought that she would like _him_? He had never even thought about what it would be like if they had a relationship together. It sounded too odd, because he was used to see her like a sister. No sane person started a relationship with his own sister. That was too disgusting for words... Squall shook his head. He shouldn't dwell on it that long.

Little did he know that upstairs, Rinoa wasn't doing her homework. Instead, she was crying, feeling like nothing would be alright anymore...

Squall didn't suspect anything. Not until she didn't show up for dinner, that is. That was when he started to feel a little guilty. Perhaps he had had to be a little more gentle towards her instead of handling the situation with simple facts, but... the fact that Rinoa had a little crush on him had taken him completely by surprise... He still couldn't believe it when he thought about it. It just didn't fit in... well, _everything_.

Oh well, all she needed was a little time now. She would act all normal again sooner or later, right? He just hoped that that would happen before he would leave this place for a year for his study in Balamb...

* * *

><p>Three days had quietly passed ever since Rinoa had made that confession. Now, she could slap herself for being so stupid! Of course he wouldn't like her. She was far too childish for him, but no, she had been too blind to realize that and now she had made an idiot out of herself in front of him. To add insult to injury, she had ended up with a broken heart, too. They said it was a matter of time until it healed again, but the way things were going now, she doubted it highly.<p>

"Selphie, I don't think I can ever forget about him..." Rinoa choked out, being close to tears for the umpteenth time. "He's just too... _everything_."

She was just back from school, currently sitting in her bedroom and talking to her best friend over the phone. She hadn't been able to talk with her about this at school, because people just wouldn't leave her alone, so Rinoa had called her now, knowing that she wouldn't be bothered by anyone. After all, Laguna and her mom weren't home yet and Squall... well, she didn't want to know where he was, anyway, but last time she had looked, he had been in the garden.

_Liar_, she told herself. _There isn't a thing you don't want to know about him. Denying that won't make things easier..._

Selphie was Rinoa's best girl friend. She knew her just as long as she knew Squall. Selphie and Rinoa always told each other everything, so it was only logical that Rinoa had told her what had happened three days ago, too. She knew she could trust the bubbly girl enough to know that her secret was safe.

_"That's only logical. What I don't understand, is how quickly you gave up. You don't even try to make him change his thoughts. That's so not you! Don't you want to make him fall for you?"_ Selphie cried from the other side of the phone.

"I wouldn't know how. He'll leave next Friday. It's impossible to make him fall for me in less than a week," the raven-haired girl pointed out, her tone sharper than she had meant.

_"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that... Well, in that case, I think you should just forget about him, Rin. I mean, he'll be gone for a year and that's long enough for you to let go of your feelings. Besides, you deserve someone who tries better."_

"But how can I forget about him? Gone or not, we're still both living in the same house. Everywhere I look, I see things that remind me of him..."

She gulped. Even in her own bedroom, she could find enough things that made her inside twist painfully. The black hooded sweater that she had borrowed from him a few days ago was one of the many examples... She quickly kicked the thing away, out of sight so it wouldn't plague her.

"_You forgot about one thing, though: you're not alone in this. I'm here for you, and I'm sure Yuffie is, too. Just leave it to us. We'll have so many girl's nights and other fun things that you'll even forget who he is by the time he comes back again,"_ the cheerful girl assured him.

Rinoa sighed, wearily. Selphie made it sound so easy.

She didn't believe one moment that that was possible, but... "I hope you're right, Selphie."

_"Of course I am! I'm always right, remember?"_

At this, Rinoa had to smile lightly. After a while, she hung up on her friend and walked towards the window. Maybe she would find something to keep her mind off things. It was the radiant afternoon sunlight that caught her attention. So far, the weather had been great, warm enough to walk outside in a thin T-shirt. But then again, it was July, what else did she expect?

Almost subconsciously, Rinoa had been staring at someone for quite a while now. Even though she was letting her thoughts drift to different directions, her eyes stared at that same person, memorizing every inch of him. Squall was still sitting outside, looking at ease. He was reading what seemed to be a magazine, seemingly unaware of the girl that was currently watching him from her room.

Sometimes, Rinoa wondered if he was doing all this on purpose. The way he was sitting straight under her window, slightly tanned, and shirtless, too, so she could have a good look at the lean muscles... it was almost as if he loved torturing her like this. As if on cue, he happened to look up at that moment, his glance directed to where she was. With a startled gasp, Rinoa moved out of sight, almost falling over something that was lying in the way and breaking her neck in the process (much later she saw that it was that stupid black hooded sweater again. It wouldn't leave her alone). All this time, her heart was beating frantically. She hoped fervently that he hadn't seen her. The last thing she wanted was for Squall to think that she was some kind of creepy stalker who just couldn't let go of him.

And since when had his eyes become this piercing? Even from this distance, they had been hard to miss...

Little did she know that at the same time, Squall was frowning, still looking at her bedroom window from outside, trying to catch another suspicious movement that confirmed his thoughts. The window was slightly open, making the light blue curtains in her room sway softly in the gentle wind.

He could swear he had seen her up there, watching him...

The brunet closed his eyes, groaning inwardly. How great. As if things weren't bad enough already, now he was getting paranoid, too, thinking that Rinoa was everywhere around him. It was obvious that it had been the wind, making the curtains move in such a fashion that he thought it had been a person. He shook his head, concentrating on _Weapons Monthly_ again, his favorite magazine...

* * *

><p><em><strong>~ 1.3 years later... ~<strong>_

_Hey Selphie, what r u dooiinngg? Lol just missin ya :3_

Rinoa sent the message and awaited Selphie's reply. Not much to her surprise, - since it was as if the girl was married to her phone. Nobody answered as fast as she did - her mobile phone rang within a few seconds, indicating that she had received a new text message. She eagerly flipped it open and started to read.

_Haha not much! Just pooping these little chocolate balls like there's no tomorrow because I'm PMS'ing like crazy!_

"Huh?"

She started to laugh, fervently hoping that that one word had been a typo. Pooping chocolate balls probably wasn't a good sign. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait that long, for she got another text message. A rather uncharacteristic snort escaped her as she read along.

_I am definitely not pooping chocolate balls, I am eating them. That was supposed to say popping, not pooping hahaha... BTW, did you read your email yet?_

Being curious now, she decided to check her email, too, wondering what it was that she had to see.

That question was answered soon, too. "What the... what is this?"

Rinoa re-read the email she just got from Selphie, the white light of the laptop reflecting in her dark chocolate-colored eyes. She then decided to call her friend. She was going too far this time, she had to know that. The phone went over two times before the hyper girl finally answered it and greeted Rinoa with a cheerful voice.

"Selphie, stop sending me those stupid chain letters about dancing angels via email! My inbox is getting cram-full with junkmail!"

_"Okay, Rinnie. Whatever you say. I just thought you would like the story about the lost puppies..."_

Why would she like that? That was sad, not funny.

"_Hey, before I forget, you got anything to do tomorrow? I thought of going to the movies with everyone,"_ Selphie suggested then in an enthousiastic voice.

Rinoa sighed. "I can't. Squall's coming home tomorrow and we'll all be picking him up," she explained. "Even Ellone comes over to see her little brother again."

"_I see. Too bad... But I bet it's pretty exciting to see him again, huh?"_

"Yeah, pretty much..."

She hadn't seen him for more than a year now. It had been too long. Sure, they called each other every weekend and they often texted each other, too, but she had no idea what he looked like. Had he changed his hair style, or his way of clothing? He had told her that he worked out every morning and she would lie if she said that she wasn't curious for the results. Besides, this was the first time they would see each other, without Rinoa being all head over heels for him. That last thought made her a little nervous, too...

_"So what are you going to wear tomorrow?"_

Rinoa couldn't sound more dumbfounded as she let out a surprised, "Huh?" Recovering again, she rephrased herself, by saying, "Does it matter? It's not like there will be a huge party after that."

_"No, but it will be a year after you've seen him..."_

Rinoa frowned, not seeming to get that. "...So?"

The other side of the line crackled slightly when Selphie sighed. "_Rin, even if you said you don't like him like you used to anymore, I think it's wise to put on something that's casual, but still says, 'Hey, this is what you've been missing, because you didn't return my feelings.' You know, to let him know that he missed a great opportunity."_

"I don't think I have such clothes, but thanks for the tip."

"_Oh, yes you do. That one short sleeved blouse that matches his eyes. You know, the one we bought together yesterday. It's perfect for this occasion."_

"I don't know..."

As if Squall would actually notice that she was wearing something that matched his eyes. He never over analyzed such trivial matters. And even if he did, what would he care? He would probably only think it was a little creepy and she couldn't blame him for it.

_"Just do it already! You can thank me later."_

Rinoa sighed. "Whatever, Selphie. I need to go now. Bye."

She hung up before Selphie could protest, or say something like, "_Oh, wow! You're even starting to sound like Squall with the whole 'Whatever' thing."_

What she said made Rinoa think, though. Surely, Squall wouldn't look that far into things like Selphie did, but still. Maybe she should be careful about what she was going to wear to avoid awkward moments. After all, she didn't want to give him the wrong impression. He had rejected her and even though that had hurt a lot at first, she was fine with it now...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading! :) From now on, they'll both stay the same age (Rinoa 17 and Squall already 18) for the rest of the story.**


	4. Snow Is in the Air

**A/N: Can you believe it? This is the second time I'm writing this chapter. The first time it was almost finished when I somehow erased it from my computer. The same goes for the next chapter. ASFKLJG! D: I hate myself, because now I had to start all over again... And that's why this chapter might be a little... weird? Anyways, I seem to be just in time for _Squall Day_, so enjoy. ;)**

**Thanks: midnight cowgirl, RatedRSuperStar87, Cloud's kid 1, MonMonCandie, Faye, LivingDoll14, Ravenscar275x, Ali, and M. L. Ayala, my beta reader.**

* * *

><p><em>~ "What?" Squall asked, irritably, narrowing his eyes at her, even though he was secretly nervous as to what her next move would be.<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>~ 1 month later... ~<strong>_

If there was something that Squall especially liked about Saturday mornings, it was the fact that it was so peacefully quiet at home, almost like time was standing still and everything was frozen for eternity. Sure, he loved being back home again, where he knew where everything was and had the ones he cared about very close to him, but he had never been quite the type to say no to tranquility, either. It was something that wasn't there often, so he was more than happy to make use of it whenever there was the possibility. Everyone who knew him was familiar with that trait of his.

Laguna, Julia and Rinoa always liked to have a good sleep on weekends, because it was the only day in the week for them that it was possible, so it felt like he had the house all to himself, which was great. The only reason that Squall wasn't still asleep like the rest of the house (like he should be!) was merely because he was used to waking up very early every day thanks to Balamb Garden. As a result, he always woke up somewhere just after six a.m., automatically, even on weekends and even if it was more than a month ago that he had returned. Some people called it a curse, but at least he could make good use of his time (and he somehow always had a lot to do). After all, one would never achieve anything if all he ever did was sleeping.

However, what made this day extra special and different from all the other Saturday mornings, was that it had snowed for the first time in three years. It was still snowing, the weightless flakes falling ever so slowly from the sky and landing silently on the cold floor, soon followed by other snowflakes. He could tell that the air outside was biting cold and the thick pack of clouds had turned the sky a light grey, blinding to the eyes if one looked at the sky for too long. He had looked outside this morning and he had been more than surprised to see everything coated in pure snow. It made the place look like those beautiful post cards with snowy, fairytale-like landscapes printed on them. The ones that always made you want to go and visit such a place.

He was fairly sure that Rinoa would absolutely love the enchanting sight as soon as she finally got up and saw it and her first question would be something along the lines of, "Will we have a white Christmas this year?"

Squall couldn't help but smirk slightly at that thought. It was so typical of her to think about Christmas when it was only half November. She was one of those people who came easily into a christmas spirit, pulling others - like Squall - with her, whether they wanted to or not. Squall didn't have much to complain, because this was one of the things he loved so much about her. She had this special way of cheering him up by just being her own bubbly self.

The weather outside made him automatically think of his very first snowball fight with the angelic girl. He had told her - more than once - to leave him alone because he didn't want to go out into the snow, but as expected, she would have none of it. Somehow (or to be more exact, by completely ignoring his increasing protests, grabbing his right hand and dragging him outside with her, much like a moppet and with incredible strenght for someone her age, he had to give her that), she had managed to draw him outside with her and so, the fun had begun. She had let herself fall into the snow, dragging him almost with her, and she had showed him how to make a snow angel. He had refused to do such a thing, but she had (surprise, surprise) managed to chide him into it.

Oh, how he had hated to admit how much he had liked that day, despite the fact that his entire face had been red and his lips blue because of the biting, icy cold wind. Julia had made them hot chocolate afterwards. The warm drink had been a welcome thing, even though it had felt like it was burning his tongue away and it had never tasted _that_ good before. Sometimes, he really missed those good times where everything had been so easy that he didn't have to overthink everything twice (or more), fearing that someone was fooling him somehow...

As quiet as he possibly could, as not to wake anyone else, Squall made his way downstairs to the kitchen at half past seven sharp. He was careful not to step on the second last stair, because he knew that that one would creak very hard and that would be heard by everyone.

After entering the kitchen, he started preparing his own breakfast. The room was fairly big and (almost unnaturally) clean, so he could use all the space he wanted and walk around freely without being bothered by something blocking his way or bumping into things. Julia was very prone to having this place always clean so you could practically eat everything from the ground if you wanted; she said that the best way to avoid getting sick was having a clean kitchen, since food that wasn't kept well was the source of all kinds of germs.

Soon enough, the kitchen smelled so good that it made Squall's own stomach growl and his mouth water. Thank Hyne there wasn't anyone else in the kitchen to witness that or he would never hear the end of it...

* * *

><p>When he was almost done with having breakfast, however (bacon and eggs, because he had all time of the world to prepare his food today. He normally went for toast or some fruit, because it was simple and fast), the peace was abruptly disturbed by none other than the person he had least expected to see this early in the morning.<p>

"Morning!"

Surprised and slightly startled, Squall looked up from the newspaper he was currently scanning through when he heard Rinoa's cheerful voice. The young woman was standing in the doorway, smiling coyly at him. She was wearing a plain white, short sleeved shirt and grey sweatpants, her long black hair pulled together in a loose ponytail from which her shorter strands of hair escaped. It was simple, but it made her look almost breathtakingly beautiful. It was more than obvious to him; this past year has been very good to her. She looked so much happier than the last time he had seen her last year that it made him almost think that she was an entire different person. It was hard to believe that she had grown into a beautiful young woman during the time he had been in Balamb Garden, studying his butt off. Could people really change this much in one year?

When their eyes finally met, Squall swiftly averted his gaze, realizing that he had been staring at her a little too long to be considered normal. "Hi," was his simple, monotone response. "You're up early."

She smiled mischievously at him as she walked to the kitchen table and sat down opposite of him. "Yeah, surprised?"

He looked at the clock on the wall to confirm his suspicions and saw to his great surprise that it was only eight o'clock; too early. "A little," he replied truthfully. "If I didn't know any better, I would say you were planning something..."

Rinoa raised a thin brow, her smile never leaving her face. "Oh? Is that so? Well, don't worry about that, Squallie-"

Squall instantly shot her a glare so hot that it could easily boil water within three seconds. "_Don't_ call me that."

It wasn't like he was not a morning person or something, but when people started to annoy him like that, deliberately even, it was hard for him to keep his neutral mask on.

"I have too little inspiration to come up with a prank you would fall in," Rinoa continued, as if she hadn't been interrupted by him at all. "But enough about me now. You know, I'm really disappointed in you."

"...Why?"

The raven-haired female looked him straight in the eyes as she replied with, "Well, you haven't even told us anything about your secret girlfriend yet. Some friend you are..."

Squall almost choked on his own spit in pure shock. Rinoa gave him the time to recover and reply, watching him closely.

"What-what are you talking... about?" he asked with a sharp voice, still coughing violently to get his spit out of his throttle.

Rinoa got up from her place and calmly walked towards the sink. She took the nearest glass on the counter and filled it with cool water to the brim.

After that, she walked back to him and gave him the glass, only now, she looked amused. "Don't act as if you really have no idea. You can't fool me; the way you just acted only proved my suspicions and that brings me to my next question. What does she look like? Oh wait, let me guess. Hmm..." A thoughtful look appeared on her face, as she started to guess what she thought was Squall's image of perfection for a woman. "She's rather tall, wears high heels, has long blond hair? Piercing blue eyes? Cherry red lips? Long legs?"

The brunet's ears instantly became red at the mentioning of the long legs and the same went for the back of his neck, as he stuttered, "Stop it, Rinoa. I already told you, I don't have any girlfriend... Nor am I planning to get one. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Rinoa blinked a couple of times at his sudden change of attitude. Soon enough, he would completely be in the defensive mode. Still, an embarrassed Squall wasn't something you saw every day...

_"What_?" Squall asked, irritably, narrowing his eyes at her, even though he was secretly nervous as to what her next move would be.

She started to laugh at the look on his face, deciding that she had tortured him enough already. "I'm just kidding, Squall. _Relax_. It's not a terrible crime to have a girlfriend, you know."

He made it look like one, though, what with the way he was acting all embarrassed. He glared hotly at her as a silent response, which only made her laugh harder. She wasn't one to be ever fazed by his subtle glares.

"I guess that _some things_ have changed around here, huh?"

"You would be surprised to find out how different some things are," she replied, trying to suppress a giggle without much success. "But I guess that some other things never change. You being up so early is just one of these examples."

She could still remember how he had woken her up at half past six in the morning, a few months ago, by calling 'to wish her a happy birthday,' like he had said... and that on a weekend! It was pretty needless to say that she had been beyond pissed at the stunt he had pulled on her (unintentionally or not, he had to know that this was really mean of him! And that on her birthday, too!).

"_You sound dead_," was the first thing he had said in an annoyingly calm voice, which only fueled her anger (because she knew he was right, but what did he expect when he called her at such a hyne-forsaken hour?).

She had effectively woken up the rest of the house - and, according to a grinning Laguna, the rest of the neighborhood as well - by the tantrum she had thrown at that time. Squall, who had been shocked (yet thoroughly amused) that such a sweet girl could get this loud and angry, had made sure never to call her before twelve o'clock, p.m. ...or when it was that time of the month again, but he had teased her with it often enough, so she had never been able to forget about that incident.

"What's with the smile?" Squall then asked, his deep voice making her return to reality.

He was almost unable to take his eyes off of her radiant smile that lit up her eyes and her entire face with it. Last year, after her confession, such smiles had been very rare, and now she was smiling all the time. It was almost as if he had all imagined her sadness of a year ago, as if it had all been a strange dream.

She shrugged in response. "I guess I just woke up in a good mood. That shows, doesn't it?"

Squall hummed, returning to the almost forgotten newspaper that lay on the table, the _Esthar Daily_. He didn't pay any attention to Rinoa anymore, who got up from her seat again and started preparing her own breakfast, in silence. She helped herself to some cornflakes, mixed with all kinds of fruit that she liked (to each his own...), but he knew that it was just a matter of time before she would start talking to him again about some completely random topic. It was a habit of hers that he was used to. A habit that probably would never die. Not that he had any problem with that. At least he never got bored when she was around.

The young man had no idea how right he was, because Rinoa was about to say something when she noticed something else that made her forget about what she was thinking of first. Seeing that Squall had a steaming hot cup of... _something_ on the table in front of him, she leaned forward on her chair over the table to see what exactly it was. Being curious as to what the contents of the cup were, she sneaked a quick peek into it, only to see some pitch black liquid, reminding her of a starless midnight sky. How _boring_. The liquid was so dark that she could see her own reflection in it. She frowned, still staring intently at her reflection that did the same. This was certainly not hot chocolate like she had expected it to be. It was too dark, like mud...

"Can I help you?" Squall asked dryly, when he noticed that Rinoa was so close to his cup that it made him think she was considering to jump in it.

Rinoa blinked, looking up at him.

She pointed at his full cup, as she asked, "Is that… _coffee_?"

Squall tried not to roll his eyes at her obvious... Rinoa-ness. Of all the _smart_ questions he had heard in his eighteen years of existence, this one was definitely the most ingenious one... ever.

"Yes, it is. Your amazing observation skills never cease to amaze me," he replied, sarcastically.

Rinoa instantly reached over to playfully hit his arm at that, before asking, "But how can you drink that? It's so bitter... almost like poison."

She shivered unintentionally as she imagined secretly how bad it would probably taste.

"Says the one with three teaspoons of sugar and extra, extra cream in what she calls her _coffee_. That's certainly a one-way ticket to a quick death, possibly even a heart attack if you ask me." As an afterthought he added, "I'm actually surprised that your teeth aren't all rotten yet."

Rinoa tried to smack him on the shoulder, but this time, the brunet male was more than prepared for it. Squall swiftly moved away, which made the girl lose her balance. If the table hadn't been there, holding her in place, she would have fallen on the floor, hard.

Squall gave her a stern look that made him look older. "Careful now. I don't want to get black coffee on my white shirt... _again_."

Not only was his coffee still steaming hot, hot enough to burn his skin away, but he was sure that he would never get the stain out of his shirt, either. He actually spoke out of experience here, because it had happened to him three times already (two of the three times, it had been Rinoa, so that really said something. That other one time had been more Yuffie Kisaragi's fault but it had still been Rinoa who had dropped the cup of coffee in his lap...). He really liked Rinoa, but he hated how clumsy she was sometimes. He always seemed to be her favorite victim, too, be it on purpose or not. Laguna always told them that they made a rather interesting duo, with Squall being the trouble magnet and Rinoa... Well-

"Squall Loire! Don't be such a meanie all the time! You won't attract any girl with that attitude, Mister. Besides, if you knew how much sugar Yuffie has every day-"

Squall decided to ignore her first comment, but he did cut in on the part that involved Yuffie. "I don't need to. I think that her actions speak for itself." Standing up from his place, he continued, "And if you don't mind, I'll leave now, before the library closes."

Squall was the kind of guy that always returned his books in time. Even if he felt too sick for it, he made sure to bring the books back before the mentioned date. He had never gotten a fine before and he wasn't planning on ever changing that. When he turned his back to her, Rinoa stuck her tongue out at him in annoyance. Even though she knew that Squall was only kidding, she still didn't like it when people would say something negative about her friends, no matter how true some of those things were.

"I saw that," was all Squall said, leaving the raven-haired girl utterly flabbergasted.

"But how-" she started, in awe.

Sometimes, she was starting to think that he had eyes in his back.

"You're too predictable... and immature."

Rinoa narrowed her eyes. "Oh _haha_."

She watched his retreating back with a slight smile on her face. She kept staring at the doorway, as he put on his black leather jacket and his gloves. He hadn't changed a thing. Sarcastic, taciturn most of the time and extremely shy and embarrassed when he had to talk about girls. It was almost cute, albeit in a strange way she couldn't quite explain...

Squall had already closed the front door behind him and gone outside into the cold that instantly seeped through his pants and shoes, when Rinoa's voice stopped him and made him turn around. "Squall, it's too cold outside. Don't forget your- _whoa_!" she couldn't finish her sentence, because at that moment, she slipped down the frozen stairs and fell on the floor, landing on her bum. Making a painful face, she continued, "...Scarf."

It was so cold outside that when she talked, her breath formed condensated clouds. For a short moment, Squall just stood there and watched her with an amused expression on his face, unable to decide what he should do next.

Then he strolled slowly towards her, the snow crunching almost delightfully under his heavy boots, as he took his time into doing so. "That's _your_ scarf," he noted with a raise of his eyebrow.

"I had to hurry and I couldn't find yours. So you can borrow mine, instead. I don't have to go anywhere soon, anyway," she explained herself, still making no movement to stand up (it made him think that maybe, she was frozen).

That wasn't too strange. Squall's own scarf was somewhere in the back of his closet... if he was lucky. Today was the first time he needed one, so he hadn't bothered to go and search for his own. He had better things to do, anyway.

"Thanks," he said, truthfully.

When he reached her, he bent forward slightly to take her white scarf out of her cold, delicate hands, but Rinoa didn't let go of it just yet.

"Don't laugh at me like that, you meanie! It really hurt!" She said, pouting cutely.

The corner of Squall's mouth twitched slightly at her antics, but he forced the forming smile down.

Shaking his head, he muttered, his voice as sarcastic as ever (if not more), "Poor you."

"And instead of just standing there like a frozen... ice cubes, you could help me get up, you know!"

Squall sighed, quasi annoyed. "Imposing, aren't we?"

He didn't bother to remind her that an ice cube was always frozen. If only, that would make her start yell at him.

"Well, I just risked my life for you, almost breaking my neck in the process, in case you just happened to miss that. The least you could do is act more like a gentleman, instead of a crude... _peasant_."

A crude peasant, really? That was all she could come up with? He allowed himself to smirk now, as he extended his heavily gloved hand towards her and helped her get up. The teen accepted his hand and put all of her weight on him as she tried to scramble up.

"Thanks, that's much better," she said, nodding. "Thanks to your slow thinking, Mister, my butt's completely frozen."

"It's not my fault that you can't even properly walk down the stairs," he couldn't help but retort.

"Hey! That's-"

The female teen then accidentally put her foot on a glib spot and immediately slipped away. Instantly, she let out a timid shriek and grabbed the front of Squall's leather coat so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself again. She almost dragged Squall with her, though. With some great difficulty, he managed to still stand on his own feet as he pulled her up again. He put his left arm around her waist to steady her, pulling her closer to him. Obviously, she was in one of those deadly, clumsy moods of hers, being a danger to everyone around her, including herself.

"_Oops,"_ Rinoa muttered, giving him a sheepish look when she saw the way he was looking at her.

She wanted to say something else when she sneezed.

"Bless you. Now get back inside, before you die from frostbite," Squall told her, as he watched her with a small frown evident on his face.

Apparently, she hadn't even bothered to put on her own coat when she came for him. For a clever girl like her, she sure had lots of moments in which she acted... well, _dumb_.

"Aw, so you actually really do care about me, huh?" Rinoa asked, with a sweet smile, clasping her hands together happily.

She then started ruffling his hair, but Squall was quick to swat her hand away. "No, I just don't want to be the one to carry your corpse back inside when it's too late, since all that cream and sugar in your coffee has made you twice as heavy as me by n- _Ow_!," he replied, earning him another poke in his ribcage that made him wince.

Rinoa stuck her tongue out at him again. "I was going already, Mr. Happy, but first things first... before I have to carry your corpse inside, which I won't by the way, because it would serve you right to die here all alone in the cold after you insulted me like that."

The brunet male rolled his eyes and muttered, "Whatever."

"Here you go..."

With much care, she gently wrapped the soft scarf around the male teen. Squall, oblivious at how close to each other they were standing, had to admit that it was pleasantly warm now that he had her scarf around his neck. It was a good thing that the utterly soft fabric didn't give him that annoying, itching feeling like his own black scarf did sometimes. That was the last thing he needed.

Her next move, however, was so unexpected that it would leave him speechless; in a spur of the moment, Rinoa swiftly kissed the tip of his nose. Squall's stormy blue eyes widened visibly in shock at her action.

He opened his mouth, but all that he could muster to say was a shaky, "_Wha_-?"

"Your nose is all red. I would almost say it looks adorable on you..."

Squall then glared at her, despite the fact that he felt how a blush was creeping up his cheeks. He didn't even want to know what she meant with _that._ And how in the _world_ could a red nose look adorable on anyone? He personally thought that it made people look like they had caught a cold... or like Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. If Rinoa thought that_ that_ was adorable, then she was much, _much_ weirder than he had thought.

"But I didn't say it," she said quickly, after seeing his expression. "To be honest, it looks absolutely _hideous!_ I'm tempted to run away and hide under my bed where you can't catch me."

Yet, her eyes were still shimmering brightly with what seemed to be sheer amusement. She always chose to get amused by the most peculiar things in the world. Squall blinked a few times. He opened his mouth to say something, _anything_, when a new pack of snowflakes started to whirl out of the sky, this time a little faster than the previous ones. Some of them landed on Rinoa's midnight-colored hair, making it glisten lightly... and one of it fell on the very tip of her nose. It melted as soon as it made contact with her skin, which meant that only a water drop was left. Subconsciously, Squall brought his right hand up, ready to brush the liquid away from the tip of her nose, when she moved her head away, looking up. This made the water drop glide off her nose.

It was her dazzling smile that made him return to reality again. "Oh, wow. This is really _beautiful_, isn't it?"

Squall blinked, still not looking away from her. "Yeah... beautiful."

Next, he swiftly scanned the area around him, hoping to Hyne that nobody had seen the events that had just taken place. When he realized that he still had his hand around her waist, he let go of her swiftly and stepped back slightly. Rinoa didn't seem to notice anything.

"You'd better get going, though," she continued. "We wouldn't want you to get stuck in a blizzard, now do we? You know that we're all too lazy to come and save your butt, so you would be all alone in this if such a thing happened... Anyways, good luck and walk carefully."

After that, she briskly turned around and walked inside again, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Squall narrowed his striking eyes, wondering what _that_ was all about. Sure, she acted like she used to around him (but more cheerful), but something seemed different, something he couldn't quite put his finger on... yet.

That was when another thought occured to him. One that made him stop breathing. She didn't still have feelings for him, did she? No, that couldn't be possible... He was probably just seeing things now. Of course she didn't like him as more than good friends. Best friends, even. That had been more than a year ago and she had never mentioned anymore of it to him. Besides, when he had returned, she had acted very normal. She hadn't held back or become all awkward and shy around him (which was something he had been very nervous about. What if everything had changed between them because of his absense? He wouldn't have been able to cope with that). She hadn't given him an impression that their friendship was over, either. Instead, she had hugged him like she used to before she had had a small crush on him.

She had said "Welcome Back!" like she really meant it and was happy to see him after all this time and if there was one thing he knew about Rinoa, it was that she couldn't lie, so she never tried to do so.

It was her eyes that always betrayed her when she did so and that day, she had looked him straight in the eyes when she talked to him, all the time. That said enough to him... unless she had suddenly, after seventeen years, learned how to lie. He doubted that, though. Also, Rinoa wore her heart on her sleeve, so if she still had liked him, she would have made it obvious for him... Unless he had missed all the hints she had given him completely...

_Stop it. There's no use to break my head over that. It's in the past. Leave it be, that's the best for the both of us_, he thought, frowning.

After one last glance to the huge house, he started heading towards the library. Thanks to his black clothing he was contrasting strongly against the almost white background.

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><p><strong>AN: Since I _accidentally_ erased the next chapter, too, it might take me a little longer to upload it. Yeah, if it isn't school, it's my own stupidity that causes my slow updates. But who knows, maybe your reviews make me change my mind? In the next chapter, she will effectively surprise Squall with something...**


	5. Rinoa's Secret

**A/N: Here is, at last, the second version of this chapter (even though I liked the first one, but I don't remember too well what exactly I had written in that one...). I'm sad to say that from now on, updates for this story will be even slower than they already are (which is pretty sad, considering that it just started), but I'm doing my best. And I feel like I'm losing readers, especially when I look at the stats of the previous chapter. Or maybe the last chapter wasn't that interesting... And while I'm at it, some shameless advertisement: for those who like Squinoa moments, I've written "From A to Z," an alphabet story, which, by the way, isn't finished yet, either (I know, it's a bad habit of mine). :P Enough of my rambling, please enjoy. ;)**

**Thanks: RatedRSuperStar87, effect20, Volkenwrath, Dea Lux, Lartovio, and M. L. Ayala, my beta reader.**

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><p><em>~ It seemed that she had made up her mind. "I guess you would hear about it from someone sooner or later, anyway. So there's no use hiding it for you-" ~<em>

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><p>The rest of the day went by pretty fast and smoothly. Nothing really exciting had happened and no, Squall didn't get caught into a blizzard on his way back from the library. Thank Hyne. That had honestly been the last thing he needed today.<p>

Surprisingly enough, it had become dark pretty soon. Dark enough for everyone to turn on the lights in their house, a source of warmth, along with the hearth to chase away the lurid, biting cold that seemed to be hiding behind every corner inside their homes. The snow that still lay on the lanes outside had barely disappeared when another thick pack of the magical white powder had fallen right above the old one, not allowing it to melt. All in all, Squall was more than glad that he didn't have to go outside anymore, because by now, it seemed to be cold enough to make his fingers freeze off, even with his thick, leather gloves on as a protection.

This morning, when he had gone to the library to get new books and bring back the old ones, it had been cold enough already, but thanks to Rinoa's white scarf around his neck, he had been blissfully warm all the way. He had thanked her from the bottom of his heart for being nice enough to let him borrow her stuff when he got back again, but he hadn't seen her that much for the rest of the day. For some reason or another, she had locked herself up into her own room, doing Hyne knew what. To say that he wasn't curious as to what she was planning was a big understatement, but he guessed that time would show him... eventually. Perhaps it was one of those icky _'girl-things'_ that he'd rather know nothing about. Not that he would get it if he did know. Besides, he had no time to become nosy, because unfortunately, he had his own business to deal with.

As of now, a frowning Squall was typing something on his laptop at top speed. His chocolate-like brown bangs came in front of his piercing blue eyes for the umpteenth time again, but he didn't bother to brush it out of his face this time (it would fall back, anyway), neither did he have time for that, since the dreaded deadline was coming closer and closer. His fingers didn't stay on the same button for more than half a second (which was the time he needed to press down a letter on the keyboard). It was almost as if his life (and that of many others) depended on it. If he was honest, his beloved weekend certainly did, because if he didn't finish this big project for History class this evening, then he would have to work on it tomorrow, too. It was pretty needless to say that he wasn't too happy with that prospect.

Unfortunately for him, he was assigned with a partner that was too lazy to even tie his own shoes (which was probably why he didn't wear shoes with laces at all). Even though he considered Irvine Kinneas, the popular "chick magnet" of their school, one of his friends, he wasn't too thrilled to be working together with him, since Squall himself had to do most of the work, - which he did without complaining, for the sake of getting good grades. After all, his future depended on it - while his partner was off, flirting with any girl he could find. It was maddening, really.

Sometimes, the flirtatious male teen made Squall want to rip his own hair off (closely followed by Irvine's ponytail) because of his behavior, but he guessed that this was always better than having to work together with a scarily hyper girl like Yuffie Kisaragi, who wouldn't be able to shut up for at least three seconds, or worse: the scum of society that was called Seifer Almasy. Not only did he happen to be Squall's greatest enemy at the moment, but he was even lazier than Irvine and impossible to work with, too. At least Irvine did what Squall said... eventually and only if he intensified his glare and threatened to strangle him with his bare hands (and at this moment, that thought was _very_ appealing). Squall knew that if Seifer would become his partner, they would end up fighting each other and trying to kill one another, rather than finishing the project that was a part of their exam for 15 percent.

He was about to decide to take another short break at a quarter to seven (his head was starting to pound rabidly from all that staring at the laptop screen), when the sweet serenity in his room was disrupted abruptly by none other than Rinoa, who barged into his room without as much as a warning, like she owned the place. The brunet could tell she that she was about to act like a drama queen. But then again, Rinoa was the drama queen of this house (and Squall's favorite one, even though she didn't know that), so he was used to it and didn't mind it that much.

"Squall, I seriously need your help with this!" she cried, as she opened the door with a fierce sweep and closed it behind her again.

The brunet male sighed lightly, rolling his eyes.

He didn't even bother to remind her to _knock_ before walking in, just in case he was changing his clothes, or something. She had never caught him in his boxers before (how that was possible, he didn't know) but he knew that she probably didn't care about that and would probably dismiss it by saying something like, "Oh, don't act as if I've never seen you shirtless before... unless you have something to hide now."

He looked up when she entered his room in all her glory. When their eyes met, though, his mouth dropped open in utmost surprise. In front of him stood a stunning young woman, dressed in a short sleeved, sapphire blue blouse with a matching glistening bracelet and black skinny jeans that made her legs look longer. Both pieces hugged her form quite nicely and were fashionable... As far as he knew, that is. The black heels she was wearing - thank Hyne they weren't that high, otherwise she would have looked ridiculous - only made her look more... well, more _what_, actually? Was _noticeable_ the right word? Or perhaps 'complete'? Those words did fit her, he had to admit that, and yet not entirely. It was more than that. He couldn't find the right word to describe her, even though he racked his brains for it.

His frown grew slightly deeper, as he kept watching her, silently, finding more and more details that made her look prettier. Things that he had somehow never noticed before. She had let her hair down this time. Her caramel-colored streaks on the side of her hair looked more notable this way. However, what was even more remarkable, was the fact that she was wearing a soft pink lip-gloss that gave her lips an irresistible shine and the mascara and eyeliner gave her eyes a mysterious, rather smoky look. Squall had never known that her eyelashes were this long, but he was fairly sure that Rinoa hardly ever put on make-up, unless there was something really special going on. He wondered what had moved her to do so this time. Was it a huge party that he didn't know about and wasn't invited to? Probably. He knew that Rinoa had lots of friends and unlike him, she was one to make friends quickly. That wasn't so surprising for Squall. After all, she had managed to make him care for her deeply, too...

That was when another thought suddenly crossed his mind. Where was the Rinoa he had practically grown up with? The one that used to laugh at dorky, cheesy pick-up lines and didn't care for make-up? It was as if she had become a whole different person in one year. And why was it that he had never noticed this beauty of hers before? Could the reason really be because he had spent so much time with her that he didn't notice anything special about her anymore?

"What is it?" he finally managed to bring out, after blinking a few times.

He coughed, trying to mask his surprise this way.

Fortunately for him, Rinoa didn't seem to notice that he had been gaping at her for this long, seeing that her smile never faltered. "I have only one question for you..." she started, her tone more serious than ever.

At once, Squall straightened more, facing her fully now.

By the way she was saying it, he could tell that it was about something that was really bothering her. "What is it?" he repeated once again, his stormy blue eyes never leaving her chocolate brown ones.

"Well..." She took a deep breath, before she continued, "Which earrings do you like more; this one," she held up her left hand up to him, in which she held light blue earrings in the shape of teardrops. He didn't miss the fact that her gleaming nail varnish was blue, too. "...Or this one?" This time, she held up her right hand, showing him another blue pair of bigger, round rings.

The silent teen resisted the urge to roll his eyes once again. He should have known that it would be about something like this. Meanwhile, Rinoa took Squall's hands in hers and dropped the four objects in his gloved hands, so he could take a better look at them. The first thing he noticed was how light both of the earrings were, despite their size, which was a good thing, because this way, she wouldn't hurt her own ears. He had seen enough girls at school who had such hideous and enormous things hanging in their ears, that it almost terrified him and made him want to stay far away from them. Honestly, what was the purpose of such big things in ones ear? Luckily, Rinoa wasn't one of those types, or else life would probably have been more hell to him. She liked smaller earrings, because she thought they were "cute." But then again, she thought that everything was cute. She had even called his behavior _cute_ when he was being protective the other day...

Squall then lifted a thin brow, looking up at her. She was asking him this because...?

"Wait. Why are you asking _me_ to help you?" he demanded, rather suspiciously, as he narrowed his stormy blue eyes at her. "Couldn't find someone else to do it out of all your friends?"

He had no sense at all for these flat-out _weird_, girly things and he knew for sure that she knew that very well. If this was one of her new tricks to make him feel embarrassed about himself again...

"Because I need a man's advise this time and you're just perfect for it. Well, what do you say?"

A _man's_ advice? Why would she need that? Was it just him or did that really sound bizarre? He doubted that such advise was better than a girl's advise, especially when it involved earrings and other stuff. Unless she wanted to impress a guy with her earrings, but that was stupid. Guys liked sports and gaming. Earrings were definitely not on their "Like-list."

Seeing that Rinoa was still waiting for his answer, he decided to please her and give her an honest opinion. "Uh..." He put both pair of earrings in one hand and looked from the right pair to the left one and back again, scratching the back of his head with his free hand as he tried to come up with a decision. He was sure of one thing here; coming up with an answer was easier said than done. "I don't really know. They're both beautiful, I guess," he eventually admitted, slowly.

He noticed that a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, lighting up her whole face and wondered what was so funny about his reply.

She was obviously humored at his honest, yet clueless answer. "Believe me, I already figured that much out by myself, but which ones match more?"

He gave her a confused look in return, tilting his head slightly, before brushing his dark bangs out of his eyes. "With what?" he wondered.

She sighed wearily, while rolling her chocolate-like eyes in a way that he couldn't have possibly overtopped.

Trying not to laugh at her best friend acting so uncharacteristically slow, she replied, "With my _outfit_, Squall. What else?"

Oh, of course. Buth honestly, _who cared_? It wasn't like anyone actually looked that closely at her to notice such trivial matters... save for Selphie, of course. That girl really had eye for detail, it was almost scary. Even Squall couldn't escape from her preying eyes sometimes... unfortunately.

"Does it matter? Your hair will be in front of it all the time, covering most of it, anyway," Squall noted, his dark eyebrows raised slightly.

Rinoa gave him a rather peeved look. It was more than obvious. He was in one of _those _impossible moods again; incorporative as hell. Fine. She would show him that he couldn't just ignore _her_ like that.

"Then why in Hyne's name do you have an earring, too, if I may ask? Your hair isn't that short, either and it's always in front of your earring, too, in case you haven't noticed yet."

Squall took a moment to reply this time. "That's because it's for myself, not for attracting girls..."

_How typical of him_, she thought with a shake of her head, but that answer didn't satisfy her yet. "Oh yeah? And how exactly does that make any sense, huh? You can't even _see_ it yourself," she retorted, giving him a sharp look.

So what was really the point to it? Really, Squall was _so_ weird sometimes that even _she_ couldn't get his motives, but she was too stubborn to give up just like that. She put her weight on her other foot, while giving him a defiant look, almost _daring_ him to say something back.

Squall lifted his other brow as well, not impressed by her argumentation at all. "...So?"

Rinoa sighed once again. Apparently, talking some sense into this guy was even harder than getting straight A's for all of her school subjects, that much was obvious.

She crossed her arms and tried not to smile as she told him, "Okay, I give up. You are _impossible_, you know that?"

Squall was tempted to reply with a sarcastic, "Thank you," but he decided against it, not wanting to aggravate her. Her reactions were really unpredictable sometimes (not to mention _weird_, even for a girl like her...).

Instead, he completely ignored her comment and decided to talk about something that he had noticed as soon as she had entered his bedroom. "You're looking... chic."

He didn't even think about telling her how beautiful he actually thought she was looking right now. Knowing her (which he did), she would only tease him with it for a long while, or do something else that he wasn't really waiting for. She always liked doing that, especially when it involved him and making him feel uneasy, but he normally didn't mind that.

At his comment, her face visibly brightened again and she gave him a sweet smile. "Really? Thanks!"

Squall hesitated slightly (and he honestly didn't even know that her dark eyes could sparkle like this from happiness), before he finally dared to ask, "Is there some special occasion going on that I don't know about yet? A birthday party, or something that I somehow completely forgot about?"

Rinoa's eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open in an 'Oh!'-shape. Her reaction to that question not only managed to surprise him, but it made him quite suspicious, too, because she honestly looked like she was hiding something from him. Especially since she gave him her famous "Deer-Caught-In-The-Headlight Look."

"Well..." The raven-haired girl bit her lower lip, making it look redder and glossier than ever. She swiftly bent forward to take the earrings out of his hands again, her moves erratic, almost as if she was afraid that he would start to throw them at her if he didn't like the answer she would give him to that question. She put both of her pair of earrings in one of her manicured hands and started fidgeting with the hem of her blouse, choosing not to look at him as she spoke. "That pretty much depends on what exactly you call _special_ here..."

Squall frowned, wondering what exactly she meant with that. Why oh why didn't a simple 'yes' or 'no' ever suffice for her? Instead, she started speaking in riddles, while the anticipations were slowly killing him (okay, maybe that was a little overreacted).

He kept looking at her with his razor sharp eyes, waiting for her to continue. When it didn't look like she would, he tried again, by softly calling out her name, "Rinoa?"

That seemed to startle her, because she jumped slightly. She sure was jumpy as of lately. He wondered why...

It seemed that she had made up her mind. "I guess you would hear about it from someone sooner or later, anyway. So there's no use hiding it from you-"

"Hiding _what_?" Squall almost-snarled, getting more than just a little impatient by her weird behavior. In a much calmer voice he continued, "What are you talking about?"

It was silent between them for a moment, _again_. An unnatural, rather unnerving and palpable silence, as thick as smoke, with the sound of the clock on his wall being the only thing that they could hear. It was ticking away the time, but to be honest, it felt like time had frozen in that room.

"...I uhm... I have a date, actually," she admitted then, finally looking him straight in the eyes, just in time to see Squall's stormy blue eyes widen in pure astonishment.

"_What_?" Squall uttered after a few seconds, when he felt how his mouth dropped open in surprise.

He stiffened visibly, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at her.

Rinoa, who immediately seemed to notice this sudden and peculiar mood swing, asked worriedly, "What's wrong, Squall?"

"Please don't tell me it's with _Seifer_ again."

The brunet male spat out his name like he was utterly disgusted of him, as if it was dirt on his new shoes that had chosen the wrong moment to bother him. Sometimes it sure felt like Seifer fitted those descriptions. He had a way of pissing Squall off, and he wasn't ashamed to use that talent of his to make his blood boil. Rinoa, however, gave him a funny look, wondering why in the world he had suddenly mentioned _him_ again. She had really thought that Squall knew better than anyone that she had closed that chapter a long time ago. Apparently, he didn't.

"No, of course not. It doesn't really work between us, remember?" she replied.

How could he _not_ remember that? She had been broken when she had heard that the blond rebel was seeing someone else. It had left a great impact on her. Even her eat patern had changed drastically. Squall had never seen Rinoa that broken and bruised again.

"Besides," she continued, "He is already dating someone else and by the looks of it, they're both trying to make it work between them."

This sure came as a surprise to Squall. Who could be stupid enough to do that? After all, one had to be completely _out of his mind_ to go on a date with Seifer. He had probably threatened the poor girl, whoever it may be, so she hadn't dared to say 'no' to him. And if that wasn't the case, then she was either too blind to see with whom she was dealing, or she was an idiot, or just sadistic as Seifer. Maybe a combination of all three the things.

But since it was of no importance now, Squall decided not to linger on it. "…Then who?" he demanded, his eyes still not leaving hers.

The intensity of his steely eyes made her gulp. At this point, it almost felt as if he would snarl at her if she dared to give him the wrong answer, but... there was no wrong answer this time, since she was sure that Squall didn't know this person. Still, she didn't feel too sure if she should tell him. Something inside the raven-haired teen told her that Squall would not be too happy with any reply she would give him, no matter who it was this time. He was unpredictable like that sometimes. But that couldn't be true. It was more likely that Squall was happy that she had found someone again.

She hesitated visibly, knowing very well that there would be no way back from now on if she told him who it was, before she finally replied in a soft, barely audibly whisper, "Riku."

"Riku?" he repeated after a short while, wondering if he had heard it right.

Rinoa nodded, somewhat nervously. Squall said nothing. He thought that he vaguely recognized that rather unusual name. The back of his mind told him that he had heard it somewhere before, several times even, he was more than sure of that. However, it confused him that he couldn't think of a face that belonged to that name, no matter how much he racked his brains for it. It was almost as if his brains didn't want him to remember what this Riku looked like. Perhaps he'd had a few classes with him in the past, or something, before he went to Balamb Garden for a year. Something, however, told him that it was one of those cocky, popular guys who kept a list of all the 'hot' girls they wanted to date. Well, whoever the guy was, it changed everything. The feeling that he got from that name couldn't exactly be called positive. That had to mean something, right?

"Then don't bother," he replied, his voice much colder than his eyes.

Rinoa blinked. She couldn't possibly have sounded more dumbfounded when she cried, "Huh?"

"The earrings?" he reminded her, calmly from the outside, and yet feeling a little impatient at her being so slow, as he pointed with his head at the small objects in her hands.

Squall didn't know what exactly he was feeling at the moment, or even why in the first place, but some dark, unknown emotion slowly started spreading through his veins like poison, feeling every inch of his insides until his body was full of it. It was eating away at his insides, telling him that this so far unknown Riku was double bad news. Sure, Rinoa was a very sweet and beautiful girl, but she was also incredibly naive at some times. She had proved that many times already. Many people knew that and he wouldn't be too surprised if her date for tonight would want to try something inappropriate. It was his job to protect her against anyone that meant to harm her, even if she didn't want to.

"You make it sound like this is a lost case, anyway! Something that sounds a lot like, 'Oh, please do us all a favor and don't even _try_ to look any better than this, because it won't help you a thing, anyway!'" she said angrily, putting her hands on her hips as she glared madly at him.

If Squall really had the guts to call her _ugly_ now, too...

"Wha-? _No_, I meant that as far as _I_ know, most guys of our age usually don't pay any attention to almost _invisible details_ like earrings matching with someone's outfit, and guys like Riku probably not at all," he swiftly said, trying to calm her down before she would start throwing things at him (it wouldn't be the first time). "Trust me on this one, Rin."

Because he'd seen enough guys like Riku and they always only wanted one thing...

If Squall had thought that using her nickname would have a calming effect on her, and that she would finally drop the subject and become her old happy self again, he was _very_ wrong. It was exactly the opposite; Rinoa didn't bother to listen to him this time and stuck her tongue out at him as she cried, while furiously throwing her hands up in the air, "Oh, _please_! Just because _you_ take me for granted all the time and never pay any attention to me, Squall, doesn't mean that no other guy ever does. Not everyone is cold and uncaring like you! Besides, you don't even know Riku that well, so don't you _dare_ to say something about this!"

Squall sighed, not bothering to tell her this time that he didn't mean it that way at all, that she was seeing things completely wrong and that it was all a small misunderstanding between them. He knew that she wouldn't listen to him, anyway, and if she didn't want to listen to him, then he was done trying and wasting his precious time and energy all for nothing. He had better things to do, like a stupid project that still needed to be finished by the end of this week. Oh, the joy.

"Whatever. Suit yourself," he muttered, his dark voice seeming to be even cooler than his steely eyes.

As soon as he had said that, he returned his attention back to his laptop again and started typing something angrily, ignoring completely the teenage girl that was still standing in his room, unable to decide what she should do next. He guessed that she could take the hint any time now and leave him be, just like he wanted. How great was that; he would sit here all night, doing his boring homework like a good boy, while she was off having fun with some jerk called Riku, which, by the way, couldn't even be considered a normal name. Seriously, _Riku_? What the heck did that even _mean_? It obviously couldn't get any worse, now could it?

Meanwhile, Rinoa bit her lower lip, making fists of her hands. She felt guiltier than ever and could practically hit herself for being so idiotically obvious! The words had just slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. And now, Squall was probably very cross with her... She had never meant to offend him in any way, and to call him cold and uncaring wasn't exactly the best thing to do. And knowing Squall, he wouldn't forgive her that soon this time. She just hoped that he hadn't noticed that other part that referred to one year ago, and how he had rejected her...

_Congratulations, you did it once again... Stupid, stupid, _stupid _Rinoa_! she cried in her head. _Look at what damage you've just caused with that one comment._

She seriously hated how she seemed to be pissing him off so easily with everything she did as of lately. She never had that intention, but it still happened... and Squall didn't say anything about it most of the time. He would just ignore her. If there was one thing that she really couldn't stand about her best friend, it was the fact that she never knew for sure what he was thinking, what was going on in his mind. It was hard enough to understand any average guy, but Squall was at least ten times worse. He was so incredibly complicated that it left her clueless sometimes. The raven-haired teen also tended to get nervous because of how much he held back with his emotions and thoughts. That way, she never knew what to expect from him, or how he was feeling about something, or _anything_ for that matter. Sometimes, he even gave her the feeling that he thought that it was a crime to show emotions. He always over-analyzed everything at least three times, before he decided to do or say something.

Even when she looked at him now, with that slight frown on his face and his body half turned away from her, as if he was disgusted by her very presence in this room, she knew that something was bothering him immensely and that she had managed to annoy the heck out of him once again. Rinoa was sure that it had something to do with the way she had acted around him. He wouldn't be the first person who thought that she was being too childish. Perhaps she had gone a little bit _too_ far this time...

Deciding that this was a great opportunity to change the subject in hopes to make him talk and forgive her, she asked him, "What are you doing, anyway?"

"..."

"Squa-"

"...I'm typing something, on my laptop," he replied, in an annoyed _'Jeez-Rinoa,-Can't-You-See-That-Yourself?_' kind of voice.

The raven-haired girl winced at that. Trying to talk things okay was harder than she had thought. But she shouldn't be surprised about that. After all, this was _Squall_ they were talking about.

"Yes, I can see that, but what exactly is that 'something'? It seems to be pretty important..."

_Especially now that you're completely ignoring me_, she finished the thought in her head.

"Homework," he replied, automatically, without any emotion evident in his voice.

"Oh. Really?"

Squall could smell her intoxicatingly overwhelming perfume as she stepped closer to him and carefully took place on the edge of his bed to read along with him over his shoulder. The brunet found that suddenly, it had become a little too warm in the room. His cheeks were even coloring from it. He held his breath so he wouldn't smell her anymore, because it made his head spin, but he knew that he couldn't hold this very long. Especially not when she kept asking him questions that he had to answer, which he knew that she would.

After a while she admitted, "Well, I'll be completely honest here, I don't get _any_ of it. I really hope you do, because otherwise you have a great problem…"

Squall automatically rolled his striking blue eyes. "...Thanks for pointing out the obvious, for I hadn't figured that one out yet."

Rinoa chose to ignore his sarcastic reply, saying, "Oh, and I should watch out for cigarettes if I were you."

This time, Squall, did face her, before brushing his chestnut tresses out of his face. From this close, he could easily distinguish each of her long eyelashes individually... They really were _long_.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because it's proven that brunets get addicted to nicotine much faster than blondes or redheads. The reason behind that is because they have more pigment. And pigment's structure looks a lot like that of nicotine. And you're a brunet, so... that's pretty much it."

He gave her a baffled look. "…Right."

It was obvious now, someone had been reading too many magazines lately. If those were her new sources, that is. Where did she get all this random stuff from, anyway? Last time, she had surprised him even more by telling him that each time you bang your head against the wall, you would lose 150 calories. It honestly sounded far too painful to be true.

Rinoa then got up from the bed and headed towards the door. Squall gave her a questioning look, to which she answered, "Anyway, I've got to go now. I wouldn't want to be late on my first date with him."

Right, her _date_ was probably waiting for her now...

"Have fun," he said, boredly, exceeding himself into sounding even less enthusiastic than normally.

Either Rinoa did not notice that, or she chose to ignore it, because the next thing she said was a simple, "Thank you."

After those last words, she walked out of his bedroom and softly closed the door behind her. Thanks to the high heels that she was wearing, Squall could hear her walk down the stairs. The brunet teen finally let out the breath he was holding all this time when she was finally gone. He couldn't help but notice that even when she had left, her sweet scent was still lingering in the air. It reminded him of a certain type flowers, or maybe some kind of fruit, but he couldn't think of anything that had that same aroma. Deciding to do something about this immediately, he got up from his bed and headed to the bedroom windows. After opening one of them, he leaned against the window frame, putting his hands on either sides of it and breathed in the cold air, which was more than a welcome change to him. It was starting to get freezing cold outside. He started to shiver from it, but that didn't make him close the window and go back to his bed. At least, not yet. First, his room needed to be aired, before her perfume would make him slowly lose his mind...

As he continued watching the scene outside (not that there was so much to see, since it was pretty dark; the lampposts were the only things that provided enough light for him to be able to distinguish big objects like cars and dustbins), he noticed that a lone figure was walking quickly towards the bus station by now, hidden deeply in a long white coat to stay out of the wind as much as was possible. He frowned, once again, because he recognized that person; it was Rinoa. Now which guy in his right mind would let the girl walk to his house in this cold? Did he want her to die of frostbite before she would even reach him, or something? Hyne, even _he_ knew that that was just too wrong for words and he didn't even date! The least that the guy could do in this case, was to pick up the girl from her house, especially when it was snowing. This fact alone proved that Riku was definitely not the right guy for Rinoa. She deserved much better. But perhaps it was a good thing that Riku didn't do all of this. At least now, he wouldn't meet Rinoa's parents, which according to him would have made things a little bit more serious between them than now.

He knew that it was wrong and very low of him, but he fervently hoped that her date would be such a disaster that she would want to sue Riku. He didn't know exactly why, but the fact that she was dating someone he didn't know, someone that didn't sound like a trustful person, too, made him feel a little bit anxious. Besides, Rinoa hadn't even told him how much she knew this Riku. How could she be sure that he wasn't like all the other popular guys she had dated so far?

It was then that Rinoa turned around, as if she could feel how someone was looking at her. Her eyes fell on his bedroom window and then, she saw him. She stopped, hesitating slightly, before she started waving at him. Squall blinked, then waved back at her. The brunet watched her turn around again, content, and continue walking.

At that moment, he got a _brilliant_ idea. One that would at least take away half of his worries... Or not, if the results were exactly as he was expecting.

_Of course, why didn't I think of that earlier?_ he wondered, as he walked back to his laptop again.

After he put the thing in his lap, he opened a new tab and typed in the school's website. Running a hand through his hair out of habit, he waited impatiently until the page would load. He really hated it how his laptop always was so slow on such important moments like this one. It made him want to throw the thing out of the window, but something told him that his father wouldn't buy him a new one if he did that. But with Laguna, one could never know for sure.

Leaning his head back against the headboard, he made himself easy while he was waiting. For the past two years, it had been Selphie's job to look after the website. A job she was taking very serious. She was also the one who shaped it and made it look the way it was now. The bubbly girl was also in charge of the school's Festival Committee. But all of that didn't matter now. He scanned the new page and saw the link that would direct him to the Students Register, so he clicked on it. Next, he typed in 'Riku' in the search bar, hoping fervently that there would be only one 'Riku' in their school, to make things easier. It had to be, because it was a rather unusual name.

"Let's see who this guy really is…" he muttered, before pressing the ENTER button.

He tapped his fingers in a rhythmic beat as he waited for the page to finally load and show him the picture. It wouldn't be long now before he knew who he had to deal with...


	6. Confusion and Little Mistakes

**A/N: I feel really bad for letting you wait this long every time. :( Please don't kill me now. Instead, enjoy this extra long chapter. And I know that things seem to be going at a very slow pace now, but that will change soon. After all, this chapter will introduce you to a new (important) character. Hope I made you curious now. :)**

**Thanks: RatedSuperStar87, Lartovio, Wakaran a i xx, effect20, RukiaRemix, xxBlue-sapphirexx, Squall-is-Cool, -Insert Spazz Dance Here-, Jayliyah, and RoseOfADifferentColor, my brilliant beta reader.**

* * *

><p><em>~ "Don't give me that look. You brought this on yourself," he reminded her. ~<em>

* * *

><p>"You've got to be <em>kidding<em> me!" He said through gritted teeth, as he tried not to slam his fist on the laptop's monitor.

Talk about his luck; when the page finally had loaded after what felt like two hours, Squall saw, much to his chagrin, that the name 'Riku' gave him two results. The first one was spelled a bit differently, 'R-i-k-k-u,' the other one 'R-i-k-u.'

Squall blinked, surprised. So apparently, there were two Rikus who attended their school and he didn't know either of them. As if having one nuisance wasn't bad enough already. It seemed that Lady Fortuna wasn't quite on his side… this week.

Deciding that he'd waited long enough, he clicked on the first name, which revealed something completely unexpected.

_Well, what do you know? This is actually quite interesting..._

Things really were getting stranger and stranger with every passing second. Surely, Rinoa hadn't told Squall every aspect of her life, but far as he knew, she wasn't on _that_ side of the spectrum. So this couldn't possibly be the 'Riku' that she was talking about all the time.

This Rikku had glossy blonde hair; secured atop of her head in a messy style with different bobby pins, save for some loose bangs too short to be pulled up. They were held there by an azure bandana, the bright colors worked together better than expected. Some parts of her hair were braided, falling loosely around her face. The only other thing he could see from her, aside from the cat-like green eyes, was the ombré scarf twisted around her neck, dark red slowly transitioning to bright yellow. The mischievous twinkle in her eyes reminded him of Yuffie and he found that quite unsettling. Something told him that these two were cut from the same cloth, so to speak.

Could she be one of Yuffie's so-called 'secret sources' that came up with all kinds of 'information' for the school paper? If that was the case, then Squall knew he had to watch out for her.

Fervently hoping that the second one would be a girl, although he knew he couldn't be that lucky, he clicked on the next name... Only to be - as expected – greatly disappointed.

A male teen roughly his age seemed to be looking him straight in the eyes, stormy blue against fearless aquamarine. His shiny silver hair framed his chiseled face, telling the brunet that this person was no slouch with his appearance. It had to be his looks, combined with his attitude that made girls go crazy for him. Also, there was absolutely no doubt from his expression that he belonged to the popular clique, with that cocky smirk dancing around his lips. That rather smug look on his face made Squall want to seriously damage his computer badly, to relieve some of his aggression. How in Hyne's name could Rinoa fall for...for _that_? He'd thought that she had better taste, but now, he wasn't sure anymore. He made a mental note to have a nice little chat with the raven-haired girl once she got back.

At that moment, his phone, currently charging on the nightstand, started beeping, alerting him to a text message. His heart began to pump a little faster. Could it be Rinoa? Maybe her date had flaked and now she was asking him to pick her up, or something. After grabbing the device, he flipped it open and saw that it was from Zell. Trying to hide the disappointment crossing his face, he started reading.

_Hey Squall; I got Fatal Fantasy VIII. Wanna join Irvine and me? We're having a game night at my house._

Squall ran a hand through his chestnut locks. He'd almost forgotten about the new game, released a few days ago. Both Zell and Irvine were addicted to gaming; they had all the games in the Fatal Fantasy series. Squall was a little bit less enthusiastic about it, but whenever he felt like playing, he would just borrow something from one of them. Zell liked fighting games like _Trekken_, which was to be expected, seeing that he knew martial arts. Irvine, however, preferred RPG's. Both guys had been talking about FF VIII constantly for the past week, much to Selphie's annoyance. Zell even seemed to have forgotten about his hot dog addiction, something that nobody thought was possible.

Eventually, the brunet male texted back, _Think I'll pass this time. Thanks for asking, though._

Zell was an okay guy, but Squall knew that he might kill the martial artist if he got on his nerves. He hadn't been this angry for quite a while, the last time he'd been this pissed off, it had had to do something with his dad. Laguna was the only one in the house who could make his blood boil by doing absolutely nothing. Besides, he wanted to be sure that Rinoa would come home safely, so he wouldn't go anywhere before he confirmed that with his own eyes. After all, that was what best friends were for, right?

* * *

><p>Squall had been holding a rather heated staring contest with Riku's picture, but in reality, his thoughts were elsewhere when his bedroom door opened. He looked down and saw that it was Angelo, Rinoa's dog. The pet already knew from experience that if she behaved, she was welcome to stay. Every time she needed something when her master wasn't at home, she would go to Squall instead. The brunet patted her carefully, noticing the dog was restless. He could only think of one reason why that might be.<p>

"Guess you're worried about her, too, huh? Or maybe you miss her… Can't really blame you for that, 'cause you're not the only one."

Angelo tilted her head to the side, but her eyes said enough. Sometimes, he wondered if she really could understand the things that he said... Well, even if she didn't, she was good at pretending.

Squall sighed when he realized what he was doing. "Look at me. I'm talking to a dog and expecting that she'll respond. I must be losing it."

Something made him think that right at this moment, Angelo was probably wondering how in the world Squall became the dominant species. Still, her presence was rather soothing. It made his thoughts drift back to the day that Angelo had been brought here as a puppy. It had been an early birthday present from Laguna and Julia, for Rinoa's fifteenth birthday. It was the same puppy that she had visited at the Pet Shop a few times, dragging Squall with her every time. Not that he had minded. She would always point out how cute the animal was. He would never be able to forget that blissful look on her face when she'd found out that the puppy was all hers. Picking the right name for her had been quite amusing, too.

_"Hey, Squall. How should we call her?" _she had asked him.

_"Zorro," Squall replied, sarcastically, while looking through his favorite magazine, Weapons Monthly._

He honestly couldn't have cared less about what the dog's name would be at that moment, but the ebony-haired girl had insisted that he'd come up with something.

_"But this isn't a boy, you goof!"_

_"...Pippi then," he opted, acting more serious now._

_"Nah, that sounds kinda weird."_

_"Oh, does it, now?" Squall sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You know, you're really hard to please sometimes." To be honest, he was running out of fitting names. His thoughts never evolved around coming up with names for a pet, so she shouldn't blame him. "Why do you want me to come up with a name? It's your dog, remember?"_

_"Because your opinion is important to me, too," she replied honestly._

_"Okay..." That sounded fair enough. "What about Lucky? No wait, I wouldn't call her that if she ended up with you."_

_That comment had earned him a rather hard punch in the arm as well as a loud 'yap' from the puppy._

_"Hah, good girl! Someone needs to tell Squallie the truth, right?"_

_"Don't call me that…"_

_"Hey, I wasn't talking to you, Mister! Don't listen in on our conversation, that's rude!" The soon to be birthday girl stuck out her tongue._

_The brunet male had rolled his stormy blue eyes. "Whatever."_

The sound of the front door closing, made him return to reality again. That had to be Rinoa. She was back. Just in time, too, because by the looks of it, it had started raining, and hard. At least that took half of his worries away. Now that other part...

Squall was still worried that she would be mad at him, but he already had a plan in case she wouldn't come to his room; he would wait for five minutes, ten at most, before he would go to her room and apologize. Not that he would actually mean any of it, because he knew he was right. Rinoa just was too stubborn to see it.

Truth was, Squall didn't trust Riku at all (especially now that he'd seen what he looked like). But if that could make her happy, then he wouldn't mind, for now.

However, to Squall's great surprise, he didn't have to do all of that, for his bedroom door opened right at that moment, only to reveal a blissful looking Rinoa.

Squall was quick to click Riku's photo away. Rinoa didn't need to see that. She would only get suspicious for no reason.

* * *

><p>The first thing Rinoa did when she finally returned from her successful date, was go to Squall's room to see him before she fell asleep. When the ebony-haired girl stepped inside, she noticed how deliciously warm his room was. As she closed the door behind her, it was almost as if the cold around her melted and left a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Squall, who was still doing Hyne knew what on his laptop, looked up as soon as he heard his bedroom door open. He relaxed visibly when he saw the familiar figure, making the raven-haired girl wonder briefly what made him so cautious all of a sudden. Perhaps she'd startled him with her sudden entrance. However, the thought left her mind when she saw the calm expression on his face.<p>

She rethought her idea, chalking up Squall's odd behavior to her runaway imagination. "Hey, hey," Rinoa greeted him with a warm smile, which he answered with a small smile of his own.

"Hey, back already?"

Rinoa was more than relieved to find out that he wasn't mad at her anymore, even if those extreme sudden mood swings were getting quite scary.

She nodded, before walking over to the brunet male and choosing to sit on the edge of his bed, next to him. "Yeah. It was pretty fun! We went ice-skating. It's a shame that my gloves weren't thick enough, though. Here, just feel how cold my hands are."

Before he had any time to react, she put both her hands against his face, which was pleasingly warm. Not necessarily, after she was done. Any other person would've jumped right out of his skin by now, but this was Squall. The only thing he did was push her hands away, rubbing at his cheeks in an attempt to re-heat his face, a rather annoyed look crossing his features.

Rinoa watched him with a rather mischievous glint in her eyes. This made her best friend narrow his eyes suspiciously. She hesitated (but only for a moment), before swiftly putting her hands against his throat, which was much warmer than his face.

This time, he did jump from the contact. "Rinoa!" he growled, in a highly peeved voice.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist. You look so cute when you're annoyed."

"For the last time, Rinoa, I am _not_ cute!"

"Aww, see? That's _exactly_ what I mean!" she said, jokingly.

"…Oh yeah? We'll see about that."

Squall, in return, grabbed his pillow and whacked her over the head with it repeatedly. Rinoa shrieked.

This surprise attack was quite effective, for she let go of him instantly to protect her head with her hands. "Squall! Stop it!"

He smirked, throwing the used pillow back on his bed. "Don't give me that look. You brought this on yourself," he reminded her, using a quasi-stern voice.

She laughed. "Meanie. Say, did you finish your homework yet?"

"Yeah... Why?"

"Oh, just wondering. Can I see it?"

The brunet male nodded. "Sure."

Squall picked up his laptop again to show her the project (thank heavens he had clicked Riku's picture away, otherwise he would have some explaining to do). His bangs fell in front of his eyes when he bent his head, as usual. Rinoa took it upon herself to fix that. Careful as ever she finger combed his soft hair, trying to part it so it wouldn't obscure his vision. She had almost succeeded, when he decided to ruin her work and run a gloved hand through his dark hair.

Rinoa let out a rather exasperated sigh. "Squall! Why'd you do _that_?"

"One, keep your hands off my hair. It'll get all greasy because of you. And two, it's _my_ hair, so _I'll_ decide how it looks."

"Meanie. You run your hands through your hair all the time," she replied with a cute pout, referring to his second comment.

"I'm wearing gloves. That doesn't matter."

Deciding to start an argument, she quirked a thin eyebrow at him in a challenging manner. "Wait... why are you wearing your leather gloves _inside the house_?"

"...Because I can."

Rinoa rolled her dark eyes. "So what you're trying to say is that if I wear gloves too, then I can run my hands through your hair as much as I want?"

Squall looked as if he had to think about it for a moment. Then he replied, a smirk forming on his lips, "No,"

This made Rinoa grab his pillow from the bed and proceed to whack him over the head with it as many times as she could, before he stopped her, pulling the pillow away from her.

"And that's _my_ pillow. Get your own."

"…Materialist. Never heard of _sharing_?" she muttered jokingly.

"…"

* * *

><p>After a while, Rinoa figured that it was time to sleep, unless she wanted to doze through math tomorrow. She definitely couldn't have that. Besides, she knew that Squall got up very early every morning to workout. He needed his sleep.<p>

Getting up from his bed, she walked towards the door, pulling it open. Looking over her shoulder, she said. "Well, I've got to go now. G'night."

Squall was about to say something, when suddenly with a loud hum; the lights in the room flickered, and then went out. At once, it was pitch black in the bedroom, so dark the feeling of terror couldn't help but set in.

"W-what happened?" Squall heard Rinoa say, startled.

He knew she was afraid of the dark. It had been like that ever since she was little, and had accidentally been locked in the basement.

"Probably a power failure. Okay, what did you do this time?"

"_Me_? I just got here!" the ebony-haired girl defended herself, indignantly.

Even though she couldn't see him right now, she was sure that he was giving her a skeptical look. After all, he never believed her, even if the proof was right in front of him.

That brought her to the next question. "Why are you always blaming me for everything that happens?"

"Because you always do something to get us into trouble… if Laguna doesn't beat you to it, that is."

"Squall, that's mean! And it's not even true, either."

"Well, toughen up."

Right at that moment, she heard a hard thud and Squall cursed. It didn't take Rinoa too long to figure out what had happened; he probably bumped his knee against his bed, or possibly even the nightstand in his attempt to find her. And it sounded like he really was in pain.

Naturally, she couldn't resist making a comment about that, while trying to hold in her laughter, so he wouldn't get mad at her again. "I see that you're acquainted with Murphy's fourteenth law?"

"Which is?" he asked, through gritted teeth.

"The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in the dark. What a talent."

"Very funny. Stay there, Rinoa. I'll find you."

"Well, let me at least help you a little by meeting you halfway, okay?"

Squall didn't reply this time, so she guessed that this was a silent approval. Right at that moment, the lights went on again, exactly at the same time that they collided into each other. The force with which Squall bumped into her made her tumble backwards. In a failed attempt to keep her balance, the ebony-haired girl grabbed his arm, pulling him with her. The brunet male landed on top of her in a rather unceremonious heap.

Moments of silence passed as the two looked at each other in the eyes. After an awkward silence, Squall spoke. "Well... I guess I... found you."

Despite the current situation, she started to laugh. "Yeah, I guess so."

Rinoa got up then and dusted herself off. "Okay, now I really should get going, before something else happens and you blame me for it. G'night. Don't stay up too late."

"...I won't. Good night." Squall muttered, getting up as well. Before she had closed the door behind her, he called out to her. "Rinoa?"

She turned around again, giving him a curious look. "Yeah?"

He hesitated slightly, before saying, "Sweet dreams."

This made her smile. "You too, Squall."

Squall sighed and closed his laptop. Running his hands through his chestnut-colored hair, he leaned back, only to jerk forward again. He'd saved that document... right? He groaned and swiftly turned his laptop on to double check. If he hadn't... then he would be too late, anyway. That would mean that he'd just wasted almost two whole days, not to mention that he would fail the class. Needless to say, he was more than glad to find out that he'd saved the document. He let out a relieved breath. Thanks to Rinoa, he might die from a heart attack sometime.

* * *

><p>The sound of two pairs of hurried footsteps echoed through the paved streets, interrupting the peaceful silence of the once quiet streets. It was a good thing that there weren't many people around, otherwise the two running figures would have to worry about accidental collisions. They had enough stress as it was.<p>

"Hurry up, Squall! We're gonna be super late this way!"

The brunet teen sighed deeply. "Oh yeah? And whose fault is it again?" he muttered, irritably, all the while increasing his pace.

Seriously, if she hadn't fallen asleep all the time, then they wouldn't have been this late for school now. Squall had shaken her awake three times this morning and every time, she would doze off again once he had left the room. Well, this happened when you came home this late from a date... with someone who wasn't worth it, too. In Balamb Garden, he'd never been late, not for a single class. But then again, there was nobody there who demanded him to wait for her until she was finally done, so they could go to school together.

"Hyne, you're so slow today! Come on!" She cried impatiently, grabbing him by his arm and dragging him along with her, much like a rag doll.

Squall almost lost his balance at that moment, but luckily, he managed to stand upright. "So now, _I'm_ the slow one," He muttered darkly, but that went unheard by the ebony-haired teen.

He would be more than glad if they made it to school with his arm still attached to his body. It would be the miracle of the day.

* * *

><p>When the school bell rang, indicating the end of the day, the hallways quickly filled up with chattering students, all excited to go home again after such an exhaustingly long day. Most of them thought that it was a shame they had to work this hard at such a young age and one honestly couldn't blame them.<p>

"Whoa, I'm so glad school's finally over," Rinoa admitted, as she let out a deep sigh, followed by a yawn that she didn't manage to suppress.

She was currently looking through the books in her locker to see which ones she should take home with her. Fortunately for her, she didn't get much homework for tomorrow. However, something told her that that would change soon, with the upcoming tests and all.

"Yeah, tell me about it! I thought today was never going to end. The days really are getting longer and longer," Selphie replied in a rather exhausted tone. She, too, was busy with her own books, standing next to her best friend. "Okay, I'm done now. Are you ready to go, Rin?"

The raven-haired girl nodded, after straightening again, closing her locker and grabbing her backpack. "Yeah, I-" She halted when she spotted a familiar brunet male in the distance, who was probably on his way to the cafeteria. He didn't seem to notice her, though, but that was no surprise. A guy like him had so much to think about that it was a small miracle that he didn't run into walls all the times that he was in deep thought.

That made her change her mind. "No, actually. I'm gonna go see Squall, so... I'll see you tomorrow?" She gave her friend a questioning look.

Selphie nodded. "Okay. See ya!"

After saying good-bye to the hyper girl, she started following Squall. He sure was in a hurry. Rinoa had to run to keep up with him, almost losing track of him once or twice. It didn't take the teen too long to find out where he was, though, because right then, she noticed that he was sitting on one of the comfortable grey couches with his back turned towards her. Well, this opportunity was almost too good to be true. The ebony-haired girl quietly crept up to him. Once in proximity, she placed her hands over his eyes. This unexpected move made him jump slightly.

However, she didn't give him any time to react, as she whispered in his ear, "Why hello there, handsome. Guess who I am?"

Rinoa could almost feel how this made him smile and she knew he had already recognized her, despite keeping her voice low.

"I don't know. You should give a few hints first, otherwise it's not fair, don't you think?" he whispered back just as softly, apparently deciding to play along.

She smiled. "Well, alright then. If you insist... Long, shiny black hair with caramel streaks on the side, eyes that closely match dark chocolate, a sweet and caring personality. Obsessed with nail polish and lion plushies... The younger, extremely adorable sister you never had? Got it yet?"

"Uh... _what_?" was the guy's utterly confused reply.

This time he hadn't whispered.

_Wait a minute..._

That was when Rinoa realized that this wasn't Squall at all. She'd mistaken someone him for someone else. His slightly deeper voice betrayed him. She gasped and her eyes widened considerably. Now that she was aware of her stupid mistake, she could see that this guy's hairstyle was different, too; his hair was much spikier than Squall's. That, and he wore different clothes. Why in the world hadn't she noticed that before? Almost as if she got an electric shock, she moved her hands away from his face and stepped back.

_Please don't turn around; please don't turn around, please don't- Drat. Too late now. What should I do? He probably thinks I'm an idiot._

After putting a rather muscular arm over the couch's back, the male turned around and curiously looked at her. Chocolate brown bangs framed his rather handsome face. His cobalt blue eyes seemed to be piercing right through her, but his stare wasn't as sharp as Squall's. Also, this tall stranger was slightly more tanned and there seemed to be a certain aura full of confidence around him.

"Uh, I uhm..." Rinoa started, but she couldn't find the right words to explain the misunderstanding.

No, scratch that; there really_ were_ no words to explain her stupidity.

"I think I'm starting to get the part with the eyes that match dark chocolate and the adorableness, but I'm afraid you have to explain the "sister I never had" thing," he said jokingly, looking up at the stuttering, perplexed girl.

This made her blush even more and she nervously started playing with the hem of her shirt.

"I'm sorry. I actually thought... you were someone else," she admitted shyly.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! How did this ever happen?_ She thought.

He chuckled knowingly, seeming to be quite amused at her confession. "Oh, that's okay. Strangely enough, I get that a lot, even though I'm new here. I'm Terra, by the way," he declared, extending his hand towards her, which she took after a moment of contemplation.

"I'm Rinoa."

"Well, that's a nice name. Nice to meet you," he said, kindly.

That was good. At least he didn't laugh at her for being such a derp. That was a good sign, right?

"Nice to meet you, too..." She paused for a moment, before her curiosity got the better of her. Before she knew what she was saying, she added, "So you're new here?"

That would explain why she had never seen him before. Obviously, she didn't know everyone who attended her school, which was understandable judging by the size of the school, but she knew most of the students by face or through-via.

This would also explain why this was the first time that she'd mistaken him for Squall.

"Yeah, I just moved a few days ago and today was my first day here," he replied, nodding. In a less serious voice he continued, "Needless to say, I've already gotten lost… twice."

"Really? Didn't anyone show you around yet?" Rinoa asked, surprised.

Usually, such things were already arranged before a new student arrived at their new school, to prevent them from getting lost or disoriented. Did they really forget about that this time?

"Unfortunately not. They only gave me a map that's impossible to read..."

"I see..."

Terra seemed to hesitate for a moment, before asking, "Say, you don't happen to give free tours to newbies, do you?"

Rinoa blinked a couple of times, before she started to laugh, replying instantaneously. "This is your lucky day, because I'm your student volunteer."

* * *

><p>"<em>Seriously? Gosh, Rin. I can't believe you mistook someone else for Squall! I bet you gave him a great first impression, then,<em>" Selphie cried from over the phone, before once breaking into a fresh wave of giggles.

"...Yeah, thanks a lot. I was _tired,_ okay! It can happen to any of us," Rinoa said, in her defense. "Besides, there are still enough people on our school who confuse me with Tifa, so it isn't that strange, don't you think?"

"_Yeah, I'm sure you were_," her friend muttered, sarcastically. _"But I guess you're right with that one. Actually, I find it a small miracle that Cloud hasn't accidentally kissed you, thinking that you're Tifa, or something."_

"Well, it's not like we're complete twins, remember?" Rinoa had called Selphie as soon as she'd gotten home from school, asking her if she had seen Terra before, but her friend's reaction had only made her feel worse about her stupid mistake.

"I swear I really thought he was his long lost twin brother, or something, when I saw him. It was almost scary," she admitted.

Despite the fact that they were look-a-likes, their personalities were quite different. She had noticed that during the time that she showed him around. For example, Squall would never just ask a stranger to show him around. He'd rather find his way around by himself. He also wouldn't joke around with a girl he didn't know at all if she mistook him for someone else. No, she was pretty sure that he would demand her to leave him alone angrily. Terra was so much more laid back, whereas Squall was constantly serious. One really had to know him to notice when he was throwing in some humor, mixed into the usual biting sarcasm. It wasn't a bad thing, it was just...different. With Terra, however, it wasn't that hard to figure out when he was joking. Now that she thought of it, she had yet to see the latter act the least bit solemn.

Yes, the only things that they probably had in common, personality-wise that is, was that they were both fine gentlemen with a good sense of humor. But she was sure that that was pretty much it.

"_By the way, did you speak to Riku today?"_ This sudden change of subject surprised the female teen, she'd almost forgotten about her date the night before.

She grimaced. "Yeah, I saw him on my way back home. He said he wants another date, but I don't know..." the ebony-haired girl admitted, as she twirled a midnight strand of hair around her fingers.

_"What? Why not?"_

Rinoa sighed. "I... can't really explain it. I mean... Sure, Riku's nice and smart and handsome, but it feels like we're missing a connection. And Squall doesn't seem to like him that much..."

_"Oh, come on, Rin! Riku's the most wanted guy. Every girl wants to date him and every guy wants to be just like him. And now that he's shown interest in you, you just push him away like that? You're crazy! If I hadn't been with Irvine already, I definitely would've wanted Riku to be my boyfriend... You're a lucky girl and you don't even realize it. Besides, why does it look like Squall always ruins things for you? And I'm not only talking about Riku here. It's been like this with all your previous boyfriends. If I didn't know any better, I would think Squall's jealous."_

"Hey, he's not my boyfriend. We're just dating. And of course that's not the case. Squall's just being protective," she reasoned.

After all, Squall wasn't a type to become jealous, of anything. He just wasn't like that.

_"Ah, the big brother thing. I see... Even today, when I saw him at the bus station, he asked me where you were, with that super serious look on his face."_

A thin eyebrow shot up. "Really? And what did you say?"

_"I told him that you were still inside, probably looking for him."_

"Oh. Okay..."

When Rinoa went outside, Squall had been at the bus station. Had he really waited that long for her in the biting cold? It wasn't like she couldn't find her way back home without him… Unless he was currently watching her. But why would he? This just didn't make sense. Could it be because of Riku? In that case, he had already seen her with him, because she had literally bumped into him near the bus station.

Still, Squall hadn't mentioned anything about it. When she had finally reached him, all he had said was, "You're late."

She hadn't told him anything about Terra, though. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that it was better this way, so she had made up some excuse to explain why she was so late. By the looks of it, he had believed her. Or maybe he hadn't. Squall's poker face was so good that she never knew what to think of him.

Selphie's next comment made her return to the present again_, "You know, I'm really surprised that your mom and Squall's dad aren't a couple after all these years of living together."_

"I already told you, they just happen to be very good friends. Kinda like Squall and me. I don't think they'll ever fall in love, despite the fact that Laguna used to be Mom's date for Prom Night back in high school. The fact that they became friends afterwards is the only reason why Laguna asked Mom to live with them. That, and the fact that this house is big enough for the four of us."

_"Yeah, I guess being such a famous journalist has its benefits. Anyways, I should go. As always, Mr. Sephiroth gave us enough homework to be busy with it for the rest of our lives. Blegh, as if the man's classes aren't bad enough. Take care."_

"You, too. And good luck."

Selphie was right, Rinoa mused. Sephiroth was by far the scariest teacher they knew. Especially when he became pissed because of students.

* * *

><p>It was far too silent in the classroom to be comfortable. Beside the annoyingly ticking clock, it was only the teacher who broke this silence. Perhaps that was why time seemed to go extra slow today.<p>

"-So that makes it impossible for..."

_This is so boring_, Rinoa thought, as she tuned the teacher's voice out.

She was sure that she wasn't the only one who thought that, even though the teacher, Mr. Vexen, seemed to do his best. Well, he definitely should try harder, if it was up to Rinoa. If Selphie had been here with her or if anyone else had been there,anyone at all, she would've been able to entertain herself by swapping notes. Unfortunately, Selphie's schedule was slightly different, which meant that they couldn't always be together, unfortunately.

At that moment, she happened to look at the doorway, only to see... _Terra_? She thought, confused. _What is he doing?_

The brunet was just standing there. He didn't seem to notice her just yet, but by the looks of it, the young man was a little too late for class. Luckily for him, the teacher stood with his back towards him, making notes on the whiteboard, so the students would understand what he was talking about (that man was too good at speaking in riddles). Terra's next action, however, caught the raven-haired girl completely off guard. He turned his back towards the class's entrance and silently entered the room, as though he was running backwards, in slow motion. That was when the teacher turned around. Terra, who had already taken notice, stood still and adjusted himself, as if he wanted to get out of the classroom again without trying to catch Mr. Vexen's attention.

"And where do _you_ think you're going?" the teacher asked, coolly.

At once, he stopped moving, acting like he'd been caught red-handed. "I uh..." he started, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed.

"Sit down," the man continued through gritted teeth.

Apparently, that was more of a rhetoric question. Terra seemed to realize that too, now.

He saluted. "Oh, uh...yes, Sir."

The other students snickered at the trick he pulled, but the teacher didn't pay any attention to them, figuring that it was normal for teens to giggle about every stupid thing that happened in class. Meanwhile, the brunet teen simply turned around and noticed Rinoa, who had raised both eyebrows. It was quite an understatement that she was immensely impressed.

_Wow, he really is a good actor. Vexen usually never falls for such things. And now, he won't be listed absent, either..._

He took a seat next to her with a victorious smirk dropping his bag under the desk, whispering, "Hey there."

"Hey," she greeted back, just as softly. "Nice move."

"Thanks. One learns a thing or two from movies."

She watched him unpack his stuff and put them on the table quietly. Both his pen and notebook were yellow. Rinoa figured that that might be his favorite color, or something. Something told her that this would be a rather interesting, not to mention highly _spectacular_ year, especially with someone like Terra as a classmate. This was probably only the beginning. At once, she found herself wishing that she would have more classes with this intriguing new student.

Maybe she was that lucky.

_But first things first_, she thought to herself, as she tore a page of her notebook, as inconspicuously as she could. She thought for a moment, before writing down the question she'd wanted to ask.

**_Why were you so late? Missed the bus?_**

After being sure that the teacher wasn't looking at her, she pushed the piece of paper towards Terra's table, catching his attention instead. For some reason, the male teen started to smirk, before scribbling down his answer and handing it over to her. Rinoa started reading right away and her dark brows floated up again.

**_No, I don't use the bus, since I have Glider. I just overslept._**

She had to admit that for a guy, he had neat handwriting. Another thing he had in common with Squall. Or was he trying to impress her?

_But why in the world would he do that? It's not like I'm going to judge him on his handwriting... unless he really thinks I'm that air headed. But Squall wouldn't mention such details so perhaps Terra won't, either. And maybe I should stop comparing him to Squall. He'll probably find it super annoying if continue. After all, I think it's annoying when people compare __me__ to Tifa._

It was then that she noticed how he was looking at her, a questioning look on his face. She blinked, quickly shaking her head, before turning her attention back to the paper that sat in front of her. She picked up her pen to write down her next question.

**_Who's Glider? A friend?_**

At this, Terra started to laugh, but he was quick enough to mask it as a series of coughs when he saw Mr. Vexen's pointed stare, which was shot in his general direction. When he turned his back again, the brunet looked at Rinoa and rolled his striking blue eyes, making her smile. When the coast was clear, he started writing again;

**_That was a close one. That guy is flat out creepy with__that look... No, that's my motorcycle. I just named it Glider._**

The ebony-haired teen pursed her lips. So he had named his _motorcycle_ Glider? What exactly should she think of that? She knew that Terra wasn't the only one who named his property; Cloud had named his motorcycle Fenrir, according to Tifa. Was it normal for guys to do this? Besides, guys loved cars and motorcycles. Perhaps this was some sign of passion towards their hobbies? Whatever. She gave him the piece of paper again and waited until he had read what she wrote.

**_Yeah, but Sephiroth is scarier ... Oh, I see. That's pretty cool!_**

She didn't have to wait that long to get a reply herself.

**_Well, if you really mean that, I wouldn't mind giving you a ride back home if the bus is late or doesn't show up, or something. After all, I still owe you for showing me around._**

Rinoa paused, biting her lower lip. Was this an honest invitation to spend some time with him? Or was she jumping to conclusions again?

**_That's very nice of you. I might consider it sometime..._**

Okay, that was definitely a lie. He'd probably realized that, too, even though he stayed quiet about it. The truth was that she'd rather wait another half hour extra for the late bus, than risk her life on a motorcycle. Still, it was nice of him to offer. But for now it was probably better to pay attention. If she didn't, then Squall would have to help her with this subject, too. She felt bad enough for him already, since she sucked at math. If it hadn't been for him helping her every time, she wouldn't have come this far. And so, she set down her pen and refocused her attention on Mr. Vexen's lesson, even though it still was boring as heck.


	7. Hidden Talent

**A/N: I'll keep it short this time, because I'm rambling enough already, but at last, chapter seven is up. Just a fair warning: I think I suck at writing action packed scenes...unfortunately. -_-' Especially now that it isn't betaed yet. The match was inspired by a certain scene of the anime _Death Note_. Enjoy. :)**

**Thanks: RatedRSuperStar87.**

* * *

><p><em>~ Perphaps if they hadn't been such good friends already, if he had only met her now, then he would have fallen for her… ~<em>

* * *

><p>Slowly, but gradually, winter arrived in Esthar as November ended and December came into the picture. By the end of December, though, the weather got even worse, making everything look rigid and freezing cold. Those soft, feathery snowflakes had changed into concussion-causing hailstones from hell. The roads would always be slippery thanks to the endless blizzards, up to the point that being outside was forming a danger. Not only to yourself, but to the people around you as well. Traffic was always delayed for at least half an hour, but at least they gave out free steaming cups of coffee and tea at the kiosks. Still, it was a considerable nuisance, despite the fact that the technology in Esthar was by far the most sophisticated one. This made people wonder what would happen in January, when it would get even colder.<p>

January, derived from Janus, the god with two faces. It wasn't that hard to guess why they had come up with that name, since it was this month that both looked back to the previous year with all the month that had already passed, as well as it looked forward to the rest of this new year that had yet to pass. Perhaps that was the main reason why people said that during January, one had the most chances to succeed into something, because you were able to look at your mistakes and learn from them for the future. However, Squall thought that they only said that because in the first month of the year, most people still kept to their new year's resolutions. By the time February started, though, most people would give up on them and move on with their lives.

That was why Squall never participated into this whole resolutions nonsense. It was a waste of his time. Honestly, who said that only after New Year, one had to gain a better lifestyle? If you really wanted to change yourself, if you wanted to mean something to this world, then you should start today, preferably yesterday. One shouldn't wait until the year had finally ended, so they could make a useless list of what they could improve about themselves. In the end, nobody would get any better from that. And why miss out on all those opportunities that you could show yourself at your best? People were really weird, not to mention incredibly lazy. Whatever, it was the least of his worries now.

A short, yet firm tap on his shoulder made Squall stop walking and turn around. The brunet blinked, slightly surprised. He stood face to face with another male teen, who also had chocolate brown hair and striking blue eyes, just like him, albeit of a darker shade. The stranger was slightly taller than him and for some reason, he didn't like it at all. It felt as though he was looking down on him, both literally as well as figuratively.

"What?" Squall said, more curtly than impatiently.

Even if the male stranger was taken aback by his cool behavior, he didn't show it. Instead, he asked with a neutral voice and facial expression, "Are these yours?"

He then held the items in his arms up, so Squall could see what he was talking about.

The latter eyed the notebook and etui he was holding, rather suspiciously, recognizing them immediately. Eventually, he replied with, "…Yes, they're mine. Where did _you_ find them?"

"...Well, let's just say that I just happened to see someone borrowing it from you earlier, without giving it back to you," was the mysterious reply. "Here, catch."

Without saying anything else, the taller male casually tossed Squall's belongings his way.

The other teen caught the items effortlessly in midair, before briefly checking if any of them were damaged or not (which thankfully, wasn't the case).

Squall sighed, returning his attention back to the stranger. "...Thanks, I guess."

The stranger waved it away, as if it was nothing, allowing a small smile to tug at his lips. "Don't mention it, really. Anyways, I've got to go now. Don't want to be late for class."

Squall nodded, indicating that he understood. With that, the other male turned around and continued walking the other way. Squall watched his retreating back, wondering who in the world that guy was. As far as he knew, he had never seen him here before...

Whatever. The fact that he'd returned Squall's belongings only proved that he probably had a good heart and that was all that mattered for now. It wasn't hard for the brunet to guess who could have 'borrowed his belongings without returning it again,' as this guy had put it. Either Seifer had become his useful annoying self again (which wouldn't surprise him at all), or Zell and Irvine thought it was funny to tease him some more.

As the brunet male was heading for his locker to finally go home, he happened to notice a familiar person. This made him stand still. Curious as to why she had laid her head on her arms, looking more broken than ever, he decided to approach her quietly. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Rinoa all day. Did something happen? This had better not to do anything with Riku...

When the male teen had reached the table, he saw to his great surprise that his friend was sleeping soundly, her arms used as her pillow. Squall shook his head, a ghost of a smile gracing his face. This was certainly not what he had expected to see. At least she wasn't sad, like he had thought at first. He scratched the back of his head, wondering what he should do next. When the silent teen had made his decision, he took off his black leather jacket and draped it carefully over Rinoa's sleeping form, as not to wake her up. Just as gently, he ran a hand through her midnight-colored hair and brushed some loose strands of hair out of her face, still marveled by its soft and silky feeling.

Right at that moment, the female teen stirred slightly, making Squall quickly retract his hand and wonder what in the world he was doing. Fortunately for him, she didn't wake up; all she did was mutter something that sounded a lot like, "Terr…"

Squall frowned. He couldn't really say that he had heard of this 'Terr' before. It was probably one of Rinoa's new girl friends. How strange that she even thought of her friends when she was asleep. It was either that, or she was simply dreaming of wa_ter_. That made even less sense. But then again, this was Rinoa he was talking about.

Well, whatever the case was, he couldn't leave her here alone, Squall concluded, as he sat down at the same table opposite of her. After opening his backpack, he grabbed a few study books, along with a pen and some other things that he needed to do his homework. He didn't mind going home later if it was with her. It was probably better to let her sleep now, because she needed it. Well, even if she hadn't needed it, he probably wouldn't have the heart to wake her up when she was looking this serene.

As of lately, she was so incredibly tired. It had to be because of the stress for the upcoming tests. This was their last year, so naturally, teachers asked much more of them than they had in the past years. They didn't spare their students anymore, so sometimes, it became a little too much for some teenagers. At home, he made sure she'd eat enough fruit and drink properly, even if it meant he had to force it down her throat. Even then she would squirm, trying to escape from him. It was funny, really, because in the past, he'd been the one who would neglect himself during such stressful times, but now, the roles seemed to be reversed.

As he was thinking all of this, he took his time to really look at her peaceful form. He couldn't deny the fact that Rinoa really was pretty. But she was also still cute, despite the fact that she was turning into a beautiful woman in front of his very eyes. She had a rather cute, tip-tilted nose, long dark eyelashes that almost touched her cheeks, glossy black hair, a fair skin, and not to forget a very kind heart. Maybe a little too kind for her own-good. Perphaps if they hadn't been such good friends already, if he had only met her now, then he would have fallen for her…

When he realized what he'd just thought, he shook his head furiously. _Stop it._

Seriously, what was it with him and these weird thoughts that plagued his mind constantly these days? Every time he saw her with another guy, his thoughts ended at the same subject, over and over again. While trying to clear his head (and ban these weird thoughts), he opened his books. There was a lot of work to do. He had no idea how long it would take the raven-haired teen to wake up, so he had to use the little time that he still had. But if she hadn't woken up before five O'clock, then he would wake her up himself, before the janitors would lock them up here. That was the last thing he needed.

* * *

><p>At a quarter to five, Rinoa's eyes slowly fluttered open. She'd rather let them stay closed, though, since that felt more pleasant, but she knew it wasn't a possibility...unfortunately. She had the kind of headache that made her feel extremely dizzy and disorientated. Her eyes were practically burning from fatigue. It felt as though she had sand in her eyes. This was nothing new to her, though, because as of lately, she had these kind of aches a lot. The female teen fervently hoped this wasn't the first sign of a fever, or something even worse.<p>

When her eyes had adjusted to the bright light, she saw that she wasn't alone anymore. Squall was sitting at her table now, doing his homework. By the looks of it, he still hadn't noticed that she was awake now. His head was bowed slightly and he was frowning lightly, as he scribbled something down in his notebook. However, at that moment, he changed his mind again and crossed it all out. A deep sigh escaped his lips. That troubled look on his chiseled face made her smile. It almost looked like the fate of the whole world was in his hands and if he didn't solve his homework _right now_, everyone was lost.

It was only then that she noticed something peculiar; for a change, Squall was only wearing his white shirt. He'd draped his leather jacket over her and even though he seemed to feel cold, he didn't take it back. Really, he was so sweet that it surprised her he still didn't have a girlfriend. But then again, she was probably the only one wo knew how much of a softie he really was. The others only saw his outside; somewhat cold and aloof. He scared everyone away with that kind of behavior and he was very well aware of that. Sometimes, she wondered if Squall would even _look_ at her if they hadn't grown up together. If they hadn't lived in the same house for years on end, would he even know of her existence? She was sure that he wouldn't want to be friends with her. Perhaps whe wouldn't have liked him, either. However, it could also be that he would have dated her then, not regarding her just a good friend... It was funny how one simple action could decide your whole future.

Deciding to let him know she was awake now, she said, "A penny for your thoughts?"

The sound of her voice made him finally look up from his book for a short moment, but soon after that, his attention was back to his work again.

He sighed, wearily. "I… never think."

"Yeah… that's _definitely_ the Squall I know." She paused there, waiting for any reaction from his side... Unfortunately for her, none was given this time. While trying to hide her disappointment, she continued, "By the way, I think this jacket is yours, right?"

The raven-haired girl took the rather heavy, leather jacket off of her and handed it over to the teen opposite from her. Squall didn't take it from her, though.

"No, it isn't mine. In fact, I've never seen it before in my whole life," he replied, without looking up this time.

"Huh?" Rinoa gave him an utterly perplexed look, wondering what he meant by that, until she saw how the corners of his mouth slowly curled up. That was when she realized that this had to be one of his sarcastic remarks. "You, Sir, have a weird sense of humor." Squall opened his mouth to reply, but Rinoa beat him to the punch by saying, "Yeah, yeah, I know, _whatever_."

The brunet male blinked, taken aback, before admitting slowly, "…I was going to say '_Thank You_,' actually."

"Don't think you can fool me that easily, Mister."

He rolled his stormy blue eyes as a response. "What were you doing here, anyway?"

This question seemed to make her remember something, for her mouth dropped open slightly, forming an O-shape. "Me? Oh, just having a nervous breakdown… but then I guess I fell asleep and forgot about it. And you?"

"…I was about to go home when I spotted you being lazy, as always."

"Hey! I'm not lazy!" she protested, indignantly. She gave him a quasi pointed glare. "Take that back!"

_Of course you aren't. You just proved that by dozing off. If you would get any lazier than this, you might slip into a coma_, he thought, sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, we'd better get going, or we might miss the bus," the male said, instead, as his eyes fell on the clock on the nearby wall.

They had exactly three minutes to make it to the busstop and there was no chance they would make it in such a short amount of time, unless they left school _right now_.

Rinoa followed Squall's stare and gasped softly, realizing what time it was. "Oh my gosh! You're right. Let's go."

They didn't lose much time gathering their stuff and quickly went outside afterwards. The teens were lucky, for they were able to catch the bus right in time. The driver was nice enough to wait a couple of seconds more, so they could catch up.

At least one thing went well that day, Rinoa thought quietly, as she looked out of the window. It had just started drizzling and by the looks of it, they wouldn't be dry anymore by the time they arrived at home. It was a good thing she'd decided to wear her warm coat today, instead of her favorite black one. With that in mind, she briefly turned away, only to catch Squall staring at her with a weird expression on his face, almost as if he was looking right through her.

She gave him a questioning look, tilting her head slightly to the side and trying to ignore the sudden nervousness she was feeling under his sharp stare. "What is it, Squall?"

That made him return to reality and he blinked. "What? ...Nothing, I was just... nevermind."

Rinoa frowned lightly. "...Okay?"

Not knowing what she should think of this umpteenth vague reply, the ebony-haired teen averted her gaze and started watching the cars and buildings she passed again. They all seemed to be in a hurry today. She tried her hardest not to look a him again via the window. Seriously, though, was it just her imagination or was Squall really acting different, no, _strange_, as of lately? He was even more quiet than usually and she would often catch him watching her, as he was obviously breaking his head over something. It had to be something big. The way his stormy blue eyes would watch her, made her feel slightly nervous. There just was something about his eyes that gave her a funny feeling near the pit of her stomach. She couldn't really put her finger on what it was, nor if she found it so annoying or not.

He would always be so deep in thought that it made her wonder if something was bothering him. Not that he would ever actually tell her if that was the case. In fact, she had the nagging feeling that he told her less about himself by every passing day. It was almost as if he didn't trust her that much anymore. Sometimes she really wished she could look into his head in order to get him. Someone really had to write a book about the complicated case that was called Squall Leonhart. But maybe it was just because it had been such a long day for her. For the both of them, for that matter. Squall was probably just as tired as she was, even if he still kept playing the role of a tough boy quite brilliantly. What a surprise.

* * *

><p>Squall took a long, satisfying chug from the bottle filled with cool water, but not necessarily because he was so thirsty. He put the bottle back inside his bag again and sighed lightly. The brunet didn't know why, but for some reason, he was getting slightly nervous by now. Perhaps it was because he would be swordplaying here again after a long time. He truly loved the sport. It was his passion, but since he hadn't done it for such a long time, he feared being a little rusty. Back at Balamb Garden, he'd learned many different and useful new tactics and he was eager to try them all out. In fact, he was half hoping that his opponent would be none other than Seifer Almasy. That would teach him to steal his materials earlier this week. He knew that the blond wouldn't hold back on him at all and to be honest, that was exactly what he was hoping for. Now, if only Lady Luck was on his side today, then everything would be alright...<p>

Right at that moment, someone slapped his shoulder amicably, interrupting his current train of thoughts. It startled him at the same time, even though all he did was letting out a grunt.

"Hey, it's good to have you back again, Squall!"

Almost irritably, the brunet raised his head to shoot a glare at that person and saw to his great surprise that Zack Fair, and old student and good friend was standing next to him. He had a goofy smile on his face that lit up his electric blue eyes. At once, Squall's glare disappeared and was replaced with a small, genuine smile. To be honest, he hadn't expected to see him here.

"It's good to be back," Squall agreed with a nod, before he noticed that his friend was dressed in sportswear, instead of his usual casual clothes. That was when curiosity got the better of him. "...So what are you doing here? Didn't you graduate last year?"

He observed the extremely cheerful, spiky haired male that was one year his senior. His unusually clear blue eyes looked right back at him, fearless and mischievous at the same time.

Zack ran a hand through his wild mane, making his midnight-colored hair even messier. "Well, of course I did, what do you think? I'm not as much of a failure as you think, Squall. But I kinda missed it here and now I'm working here as a parttime PE teacher. It's an okay job, even though the meetings are dead boring. But it's also good for my CV and this way, I can get rid of all that extra energy."

"That's great," was Squall's truthful reaction.

To be honest, he was both pleasantly surprised, as well as thrilled at this fact. The role of PE teacher fitted Zack just perfectly; he was very energetic, enthusiast and he always really tried to get the best out of people by assisting them when necessary. No wonder everyone admired him so much and saw him as the hero that he truly was. The same went for the fact that his nickname was '_Puppy_.' It wasn't that hard to guess where that had come from. Besides, having him as a teacher was a welcome change. Admittedly, their previous teacher Mr. Angeal was a talented man, but he wasn't as enthusiast as Zack. He would undoubtedly be his favorite teacher.

"Yeah, I know, right? And instead of good ol' Angeal, _I'll_ be teaching you guys today."

Squall was sure that if Angeal had heard Zack calling him old, he wouldn't exactly thank the young man for it. He probably would have demanded a battle to life or death. That would have been some sight to see.

"I see... There's just one thing," the brunet noted, looking around him.

"What is it, Squall?"

"Why is it that I don't see the bats and other stuff that we use? Did you forget to set them out?"

"Oh, no. Actually, there's a reason for it and you're about to find out what that is." In a much louder tone, so all the other students could hear him, too, he continued, "Okay, everyone. Gather round quickly. We only have two hours." Zack paused, waiting until every student had reached the place where he stood, standing in a big circle around him, while still being able to see him. Most of them looked just as happy (and thoroughly surprised) to see him back and they greeted them with a big smile on their face. He greeted them back just as cheerfully, before he continued in a more serious way, "It's good to see you all back again. Guess what; for today, I want to try something different."

As soon as he'd said that, the students started whispering, clearly baffled. One couldn't blame them, for this was the first time they would deviate from their normal routine. Mr. Angeal was a strict teacher, who liked to keep to the schedule he'd made for his pupils.

"Don't worry, though, it's only a different way of practising. There's no need for the long faces, 'cause it will still have something to do with our usual stuff," he promised. "In fact, this way you'll be able to test yourself on your abilities. It shows how skilled you already are and which points you still have to work on. Now, if you could all follow me outside..."

With that, the raven-haired male turned around and headed towards the entrance. After hesitating slightly at first, his students exchanged a look with each other and followed him. Squall had no idea what Zack had planned. Why on earth would he want to go outside, instead of staying here at the gym? Was it because they would need even more space? Well, whatever the case was, he would find out soon enough.

Once they had all gotten outside, they realized that their destination was at the playing fields, or to be more precise, the tennis courts. The fields were ready to be used, because a huge glass dome was around it ever since it had become winter. That way, it didn't matter if it was snowing or not; the fields wouldn't be ruined this season. It was a new project that their school was willing to puy a large sum of money for.

"Tadaah!" Zack cried, proudly, as he gestured towards the (almost invitingly) empty fields.

Only silence followed, as many people blinked dumbfoundedly. Some of them looked around, as if searching for a good explanation of what they really were doing here. They couldn't find anything that could satisfy them, though, which left them even more clueless.

"What, we're going to play _tennis_ now?" Zell asked, incredulously, not sure if this was some sort of joke or if Zack really had lost his mind this time.

It seemed that he, too, had expected something more spectacular, especially from someone adventurous like Zack Fair.

"Oh, c'mon. A little bit more enthusiasm is more than welcome, guys. I really thought you would like this."

"What I'm wondering is what the hell's got tennis anything to do with swordfighting?" Seifer scoffed.

"Yeah! Seifer's right, y'know?" Raijin cried, nodding at the same time.

"Well, maybe if you would actually start doing something, instead of nagging all the time like a grumpy old lady, you'd find out the answer yourself," Zack quipped.

This earned him a heated glare from the blond, followed by a soft snickering from the rest of the group. As expected, that shut him up effectively. Squall smirked. That served him right. It was about time that someone put Seifer in his place.

With more confidence now, Zack declared, "Now, let's see how you manage with a tennisracket as your only weapon on this battlefield. This will be a great chance for you to get to know your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Okay, I'm going to pair you up and a match will be held. Let's see..." After that, the young teacher started pairing up students, his decision being based on their skills. "Zell and Seifer, and last, but certainly not least... Squall and Terra."

_Wait_,_ just who the heck's this Terra that people keep talking about these days?_ Squall wondered, frowning lightly.

He couldn't say he'd heard of that name before. At that moment, someone tapped his shoulder for the second time that day. Squall turned around, only to stand face to face with the familiar brunet from earlier. He recognized him immediately. It was the guy that had returned his belongings to him.

_Him again? Don't tell me this guy is actually Terra? Well, that makes things a lot more interesting..._

"Hi. You're Squall, right?" the stranger asked, giving Squall a questioning look.

"...Yeah, that's me."

"Cool, then I guess we're partners."

_I guess so... Don't expect me to go easy on you, though, just because I owe you for returning my stuff._

He followed Terra to a more secluded area of the tennis court and walked to the other side of the net. "You serve," was all Squall said.

"Very well, then."

"Get ready. We'll practise first for a little while, so you'll get all warmed up and used to your uh... weapon," Zack announced, looking at his watch to set the time.

He didn't have to say that twice. The students hurried to get ready and even Seifer did as he was told, even though he still looked a little peeved. As soon as their teacher gave them the signal to start, which was a sharp whistle, they all began their match.

"May the best man win," Terra said.

Squall nodded, albeit slighly impatient. _Just get started already. You talk more than you actually do something._

"So, are you fine with the winner being whoever wins the first set of six games, I assume?" Terra then asked.

The silent teen shrugged. "That's fine with me."

Terra let the ball bounce a couple of times, before he threw it in the air, raised his tennis racket at the same time.

Squall mentally prepared himself for it. _Here it comes..._

Then, Terra hit the ball at full force Squall's way. The latter had never thought it was possible to hit a tennis ball with such great amount of strength. Before he could react, the ball had flown right past him, hitting the fence behind him. If anyone had been standing there, they might have been into a coma now, judging by the speed of the tennis ball. It looked more like a bullet.

Squall straightened, looking over his shoulder. _Whoa... he's really serious about this? Not bad, I have to admit that._

"He who takes the initiative wins," Terra muttered with a small smirk.

This didn't go unheard by his rival. _Cocky much? Let's see how much of that stays when I'm done with you, Terra._

"We'll see about that," Squall replied, getting ready again.

Whereas the other matches were mostly repetitive, the 'battle' between Terra and Squall was much fiercer, due to their competitive nature. Neither of them liked to lose and that was easy to see now. Both males were only focused on the game, shutting out everything else that was around them. Their movements were almost in sync and for outsiders, it was as though they could easily read each other's minds, one always acting a tiny bit faster than the other to prevent him from winning. The way they behaved attracted a lot attention, meaning that soon enough, a big, cheering croud had gathered around the tennis court.

"I can't believe this. Are they meant to be amateurs?" Irvine wondered, clearly awestruck. "I expected this of Squall, but I never thought this new guy was just as skilled. Who is he, anyway?"

"That's Terra, a new student. It seems that we've finally found a rival for Squall. His competition seems pretty strong," Zack noted with a small smile. "This should get interesting."

Soon enough, it was obvious that Terra mostly relied on his strength, with his weak point being his speed. With Squall, it was exactly the other way around. He could react much faster, which he used to his benefit. He did his best to make Terra run from one side to the other as much as he could, hoping that this would make him tired soon enough.

Once again, Squall saw an opening and he put his every being into this one backhanded move. Terra saw too late what he wanted to achieve. He reached out for the tennis ball, but was still too far away, causing the ball to bounce right under his arm. This gave Squall another match point, making the crowd cheer once again.

"Game, set; won by Squall! Six games to four, if I'm not mistaken," Zack announced, now functionating as the referee. "Good job, guys. You can be proud of yourselves."

Both brunet teens bent forward slightly, their hands on their knees, as they tried to catch their breath. As soon as Terra had stopped panting, he made his way towards Squall. The latter looked up, curiously.

"That was some interesting match. Congrats," Terra said, extending his hand with a small smile. "Watch out, though. Next time, I'll be winning from you."

Squall looked at it for a moment, before shaking it. "Thanks. You were a skilled opponent." It was silent between them for a moment, until, "Are you a new student?"

The taller male nodded. "Yeah. More or less."

"...I see."

Sweat was beading on their forehead. They both wiped it away, at the same time. Now that they were standing next to each other, they had the time to investigate each other. Squall noticed that the new student was rather athletic; he had a rather lean, but muscled built. He had to be quite popular with the girls, but he didn't seem to be that air-headed, like Riku for example. In fact, he wouldn't mind being friends with someone like Terra...

* * *

><p>"Oh, before I forget, did you hear it already?" Selphie asked.<p>

"Hear what?" Rinoa asked, curiously, as she took place opposite from Selphie at the table.

They currently had a lunch break and they were waiting in the cafetaria for the rest of their group to join them, keeping their places free for them.

"Duh! About the tennis match between Terra and Squall earlier this day, of course. You should've seen it. I swear, Terra was so amazing! He made things very hard for Squall. Even though Squall won in the end, I still think Terra was the better one out of those two. The way he kept up with him, he moved like a warrior on the battlefield, or something. Oh, there he is!"

Rinoa followed Selphie's stare, hearing how her friend let out a dreamy sigh. "He's so perfect, isn't he?"

"Be careful. Irvine might hear you say that and he probably won't take that well," Rinoa spoke with a small laugh.

"Psh. He talks about girls often enough. I think I'm allowed to do that, too when he isn't around," Selphie noted, defending herself. "I bet that soon enough, he'll beat even Riku in popularity. Riku's not gonna like that at all."

The raven-haired girl didn't say anything else about the matter and returned her attention back to the tall brunet. He didn't seem to notice her, making it easier for her to keep watching him, without looking like a creepy, stalker-ish fangirl. Selphie was right, though. If he could actually keep up with Squall, then he had to be really skilled. It was too bad that she didn't know much about him. She wondered where he'd learned to play tennis...

"Ahem..."

Selphie's fake cough, made the ebony-haired teen look back at her friend. "What?"

"I saw that, Rinnie," she replied, teasingly.

A hint of amusement was heard in her voice, as her cat-like green eyes twinkled mischievously.

Rinoa, however, feigned innocence. "What do you mean?"

"How you kept staring at him like a love-sick puppy, _that's_ what I mean. It's kinda cute."

"I- what?" At once, she felt how she started to blush. The way Selphie was looking at her, didn't help one bit, either. "...I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, no. Of course you don't..." When Selphie saw the slightly alarmed look on Rinoa's face, she continued with a huge grin, "I'm just messing with ya, Rin. Relax."

The still blushing teen sighed. "Not funny, Selphie."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Next chapter: Perhaps Terra isn't quite the person he makes other people believe he is. Squall is about to find that out...**


	8. Terrable Masks

**A/N: A little bit of a shorter chapter this time, but I hope you'll still enjoy it. :D**

**Thanks: effect20, Kawai Dark Heart, and M. L. Ayala, for betaing this piece. :)**

* * *

><p><em>~ "...Did I interrupt you two?" ~<em>

* * *

><p>Another deep sigh followed the previous one, as Rinoa let her head promptly rest on her arms, closing her chocolate brown eyes. "Guh, this is <em>hopeless<em>."

Her midnight-colored hair fell around her like a dark, thick and silky smooth curtain, hiding her face from the only other person in the room. Whether it was a coincidence, or because she really wanted to hide the expression on her face, one couldn't be too sure.

She sounded so miserably forlorn that it automatically made Squall look up from the book he was currently reading, his interest piqued once again. However, he hadn't expected it to be this bad.

"Rinoa, what's wrong?"

It took her a little while to respond (perhaps to add a little bit of drama?), but she didn't bother to look up. "...You just wouldn't understand."

The brunet male rolled his stormy blue eyes at the overdone drama. How typical of her. He knew from experience that whenever she would say something like this, Rinoa would actually mean something along the lines of, _"Please ask further about the subject, so I can pour my heart out to you." _After all, he was a good listener when it came to her problems and she knew that, too.

"Try me."

"...Alright. Nobody on this planet wants to go shopping with me," she replied, in such a cute way that he had the hardest time not to start smiling.

_Yeah, as if she actually called every single person on the planet to go shopping with her before moping around here._

Still, he couldn't resist teasing her with it. "Why not? What did you do this time?"

This made her look up to give him a sharp look. "_Nothing_! Everybody just tells me off, claiming they're far too busy with Hyne knows what to go to the shopping centre with me. Some friends I have…"

"Well, maybe you should busy yourself, too. Believe it or not, doing your homework for a change could actually be quite useful for not failing your tests. Trust me on that one."

Rinoa rolled her eyes. "Hahah, Squall. I actually already did most of it. All I need is a short break from it now and nothing's more relaxing than shopping."

Squall frowned, strongly disagreeing with her at that point. He didn't say anything about it, though. Tell a girl that shopping sucked and she would try to change your mind with the most drastic things for the rest of your life. Not exactly something he was waiting for.

_A 'short' break, huh? So that's what she's calling it nowadays…_

"Nobody in this world loves me. Everyone hates me," she muttered to herself, but that didn't go unheard by the brunet male.

"That's not true… Not everyone in this world knows you."

It was out before he could stop himself, and it earned him a glare that by the looks of it, almost could melt gold. "Oh ha ha! Leave it up to you to make me feel even worse!" she spat, angrily, clenching her hands into fists.

"Well, what about Selphie?" he hinted, when he started to feel guilty. "Can't she go with you this time?"

"No, she's on a date with Irvine," Rinoa replied, sadly again.

"Oh..."

He should have known, since that was pretty much the only time the hyper girl didn't do something together with Rinoa. Those two seemed to be joined at the hip ever since he got back from Balamb Garden. Sometimes it made him jealous, but then he would remember all those weird girl stuff that he just didn't understand and then it was alright again. He would be of no help to Rinoa if she'd discuss all of that with him. What was he supposed to say, even if Rinoa would want to talk about girl things with him? Besides, he didn't think he wanted to know what girls talked about when there were no guys around. Sometimes, it was better to leave things as they were and know less.

"Of course, I would've asked you, too, but since you can't even tell me which earrings I should wear with a certain outfit, I'm not sure if you're of much help…" the raven-haired teenager noted jokingly.

Squall gave her a flat look, but didn't reply to that, because he already knew how much of a torture it was to go shopping with her. He'd experienced it countless times before, so he would never forget about that; all they would do all day was moving from shop to shop in the slowest pace imaginable, even when she didn't buy anything from those thirty-something shops. Why couldn't girls just go after the things they needed and then get out, instead of being so difficult all the time? What was the point of that? What would they achieve? He supposed it was fun for them, but after the umpteenth shop… Didn't things blur together? Well, it certainly did for him.

"I wish I could help you with this big problem you're trying to cope with, but I've run out of ideas," Squall muttered sarcastically.

"…It's okay. You can't help it that you're not that creative," she said, winking at him to show she was just kidding.

"Very funny, Rinoa."

A comfortable silence then set between them and Squall turned his attention back to the novel in his hands. Rinoa's head leaned against the palm of her hand, which was propped up on the table. She bit her lip, trying to come up with more people she could ask to join her, but how was that possible when she'd tried everyone already?

That was when she suddenly realized something important. Honestly, how could she forget about that? There was still one person she hadn't asked to go with her…

Admittedly, the chance was big that he would turn her down, too (he was a guy, after all), but maybe she was lucky. Well, trying didn't hurt, right? It was a good thing she had his number already. That made things much easier. At once, Rinoa got up to get her mobile phone from upstairs. Squall didn't look up this time when she left the room, figuring that she'd probably found someone to accompany her, or something else to keep her busy with.

Meanwhile, Rinoa dialed a number and put the device against her ear. She held her breath, as she waited for him to pick up, her heart beating twice as fast now. The raven-haired teen hadn't been this nervous since her very first date in her whole life. Needless to say, that hadn't gone that well. There had been awkward silences all evening and the guy in question never had talked to her afterwards. At least she could look back at it now and laugh... More or less.

And then…

_"Terra speaking."_

Her heart started tap-dancing across her chest as soon as she heard his deep voice.

She took a deep breath, trying to clear the quiver in her voice. "Hi, this is Rinoa."

_"Oh, hey there."_

Even if he hadn't expected to hear her, for she had never called him before, he didn't show it. In fact, he sounded genuinely happy to hear her voice.

"Um… I was wondering if uh… if you would like to go shopping with me, today."

For a short moment, it was completely silent on the other side of the line, making Rinoa wonder if he was still there.

She was about to ask that, when he asked dumbfounded, "_Shopping?_"

The surprise was clearly heard in his voice, now an octave higher.

Rinoa cringed, because that said enough already. Still, she went on, because she had nothing to lose, right?

"Well, yes. I couldn't find anybody else, so…"

"_So I'm pretty much your last choice? Gee, thanks a lot, Rinoa! That actually hurt."_

"No, no, no! I didn't mean it that way," she quickly cried, correcting herself. She could feel how her cheeks started to redden and she was glad that he couldn't see her right now. "I just thought that maybe you wouldn't mind going with me, but I wasn't too sure if you would want to, so…"

_Oh, Hyne. I sound like I don't know how to use my brains anymore._

The longer she went on about this, the more she found herself sounding like a babbling idiot. She must've made a bad impression on him by now, that much was sure.

"_Don't worry about that. I was just messing with you… But sure, I wouldn't mind going with you. Where do we meet?"_

Really, that was all? He didn't even needed to be persuaded, like it always was the case with Squall…

She thought about it for a moment. "How about near the park?" she suggested. "Do you know where that is?"

_"Yeah, sounds great. I'll be there in…_" There was a short pause and Rinoa knew he was looking at his watch._ "Ten minutes, at the most."_

"Okay, I'll see you there."

Rinoa hung up, before grabbing her belongings. Well, that certainly went easier than expected. Hopefully, the same would apply to the rest of the day. She had to admit that the idea of being alone with Terra for at least an hour made her stomach do backflips over and over again. She hadn't even been this nervous when she'd dated Riku…

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Squall heard how the front door was opened and closed again, followed by much laughter and noise, effectively putting an end to the tranquility inside the house. He figured that Julia and his dad were finally home. About time. Those two were going out more often than him and Rinoa put together…<p>

Squall got up from his desk chair to close the bedroom door which was slightly ajar, so he could study in peace. However, he halted when he reached said door. The sound of male laughter made him freeze on the spot... The brunet frowned. What was a guy doing in their house? This had better not be Riku because he certainly wouldn't welcome him. Honestly, it was as if that guy never wanted to leave Rinoa's side. Didn't he have his own life? He was sure that his friend was starting to find this trait annoying, too, but she had too much of a kind heart to tell Riku the truth. Well, if that was the case, then _he_ would do it for Rinoa instead.

Quietly, as not to make his presence known, the brunet teen left his room and slowly crept towards the stairs, careful, as not to be seen. The carpeted area in the hallway muffled his footsteps, which was great to his benefit. This way, he could both hear and see what exactly was happening downstairs. He bent down at a funny angle, just to be able to see the intruder's face. His chocolate brown hair fell in front of his eyes and the brushed it away with an air of annoyance, making a mental note to get a haircut soon. At first, he only saw a mop of brown, slightly spiky hair.

_Well, that's definitely not Riku,_ he thought.

As soon as the person turned around, though, Squall's stormy blue eyes widened slightly in utter shock.

_What the... What's he doing here?_

This he had certainly not expected to encounter. Terra, _Terra of all people_, the guy that Squall had just started to respect a little, was carrying multiple shopping bags, as he calmly and confidently followed Rinoa inside. It seemed that they had visited every shop they could find, judging by the different colors of the shopping bags. Strangely enough, what bothered him the most about this sight was the fact that Rinoa looked happier than she had been in weeks and all because of this guy. Squall wondered, had he been the one who had offered to go with her, or had she asked him first? Did it really matter at this point?

Almost with the curiosity of a child who could practically feel that adventure was just around the corner, Terra looked around, slowly taking in his surroundings. "Nice house," he commented, politely.

Rinoa smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks."

"Well, I guess you'll never have to go out to buy blue clothes anymore after today," he noted jokingly, making the female teen, who was now wringing her wet hair, laugh.

Squall rolled his eyes. _Honestly, that wasn't even considered funny. Why in the world does she have to laugh at something like that?_

"I'm not so sure about that. Besides, I wouldn't have minded staying a little longer with you... if only it hadn't started pouring."

Squall's heart made a painful twist at her words. It didn't go unnoticed by the observing brunet how his best friend was flirting back innocently and to be honest, it made his blood boil from pure anger... or was it because of something else? He quickly pushed that particular thought aside. It didn't mean anything.

He wasn't sure what to think of this anymore; had Rinoa deliberately not told him that this Terra would go with her, knowing that he wouldn't like it? Did that mean that…

_Please don't tell me she's got any feelings for this douche..._

Squall took his words back. This guy wasn't the nice, trustworthy person he'd imagined him to be. No, Terra was a lanky loser, who had just been waiting for his chance to impress girls. There was no kindness in his heart, he was tainted. And he was sneaky enough so that his innocent victims didn't notice what he was planning all along.

Terra nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. The weather here's even more unpredictable than where I originally come from. But I guess there's always a next time, right?"

Squall narrowed his eyes after hearing that. Was it just him, or did he sound a little too hopeful here?

"Oh, that would be fun! And then I'll find something suiting for you, too," she promised, a radiant smile crossing her delicate features.

"What, you mean you'll force me to buy even _more_ stuff? You don't think this is enough already?" the male teen asked, incredulously.

He held two full shopping bags up to emphasize his point. By the looks of it, they were quite heavy, too, but he had no problem lifting them up like that.

"Not by a long shot, Mister. This was only the beginning."

Terra chuckled, shaking his head. "Either way, I'm glad... you asked me. I enjoyed today, as weird as that sounds, seeing that I'm a guy."

"Well, who said guys can't like shopping?"

Terra stepped closer to her now, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I guess you have a point here."

Squall couldn't believe this! He was flirting with her, in _his_ house. The _nerve_! Just who the hell did he think he was? And the worst thing was, she was just flirting right back! What did he want from her? As if Riku wasn't bad enough already, now he had to worry about two guys who were after Rinoa. It was about high time that he'd interfere…

That was when Terra spotted Squall slowly walking down the stairs, silent, like a hunter who had spotted his new prey. His face was unreadable, but at least he didn't look angry.

"Oh, hey there, Squall!" Rinoa said, cheerfully. "Guess who wanted to go shopping with me?"

"…Did I interrupt you two?"

Terra didn't seem to notice how for a short moment, his eyes flickered in the light, but Squall could see from the corner of his eyes how Rinoa gave him a worried stare.

"Not at all. How's it going? I didn't really expect to see you here," Terra admitted. "Are you family?" He stepped forward, outstretching his hand as a greet, but the other brunet male didn't take his extended hand. All he did, was staring right back at him with an icy glare. It was eerily silent between them. For a moment, it looked as though they had both turned into statues, before Terra slowly retreated his hand and started rubbing the back of his head. "O-kay..." he mumbled, backing away again.

From the look on his face, it was obvious how he was wondering if he'd said or done something wrong.

"No, we're not family, we're just friends. It's... a long story," Rinoa then replied, breaking the awkward silence.

Terra nodded. "Oh, okay."

"Terra, huh? I always thought that was a girly name. Guess I was wrong after all, wasn't I?" Squall eventually noted, coolly.

Rinoa widened her eyes at his harsh words. "Squall!"

"What?" he said, in the same icy tone.

Rinoa gave him a withering look in return that promised him they would have a nice little chat as soon as Terra had left. Well, he couldn't wait.

The female teen was about to say something to lighten up the mood, when her guest beat her to the punch by saying, "Well, I should probably go now. It was... nice to see you again, Squall. Take care, Rinoa."

He turned back to the ebony-haired girl and touched her arm lightly (and it took all of Squall's willpower not to punch the living daylights out of the other male at that moment, or just throw things at him) and he quietly headed back towards the door. The raven-haired teen quickly walked with him to help him out.

Before she left the room after him, she turned back to Squall in one swift move.

Her eyes were narrowed angrily, which didn't promise any good, he could tell that much. "We're not done yet."

"I think we are," he muttered, but Rinoa didn't hear him, as she went after Terra.

Squall just watched her go, his hands in his pockets. Something told him that he was in big trouble now. He heard the front door close and mentally prepared himself for what would come next. Ah, and there she was again.

The ebony-haired girl stood still in front of Squall and suddenly grabbed him at his shoulders, _hard_. Squall tried not to flinch; she had a pretty strong grip, strong enough to leave him bruises.

"Rinoa, what are you do-"

"What is _wrong_ with you? Why did you say that about his name?" she exclaimed, angrily.

She looked so furious that Squall unconsciously took a step back. He had never seen her like this.

Still, it didn't make him change what he wanted to say. "Oh, I don't know... Maybe because it's true?"

Her mouth dropped open in disbelief. "_What _did you just say?"

"Look, I can't help it that he can't take a joke. People say things about my name often enough. That doesn't mean I actually give a damn," he replied, bluntly. "So why are you all riled up? Did I interrupt you two in something important?"

Blood rushed to the female teen's head, as she was slightly aware how she'd started breathing twice as fast because of his harsh words. This was the bloody limit.

"A _joke_? That's what you call it when you insult people? Ugh, I swear, you're unbelievable!"

By now, her patience had reached the limit and before she had realized it, she'd slammed the living-room's door shut right in his face. Then it became eerily quiet...

Squall frowned, looking at the closed door. Slowly, he started regretting the fact that he'd argued with her. Perhaps he'd gone a bit too far this time. Should he apologize to her now? He'd rather not apologize at all, but… Perhaps he'd better first assess the situation and then come to a proper conclusion. Carefully, the brunet male opened the living room's door and saw that Rinoa was standing near the window.

Her back was turned towards him and she didn't take her eyes off of the scene outside, when she asked in an icy tone, "What do you want now?"

She still sounded incredibly annoyed with him.

"I uh..." He paused, trying to look for the right words, so he wouldn't mess up again. Saying sorry wasn't exactly his forte. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," Squall started, almost shyly. He continued, truthfully, "I... actually don't know why I said that, about his name."

Rinoa slowly turned around and looked briefly at him, probably to see if he was speaking the truth. He quickly averted his gaze, his chocolate brown bangs falling in front of his eyes. This time, he didn't bother to brush them out of his face, glad that at least something was partially shielding his face from her.

The angry teen was sure of one thing; whenever Squall wouldn't look her in the eyes, he was either admitting defeat or he was hiding something from her. In this case, it was probably the former.

"I don't get it," she let him know, after a moment of deafening silence.

"…What?"

"Why don't you like Terra? He's very nice and honest. And he's a great partner for Biology's project. He worked as hard as I did and he's kinda smart, too."

However, if she thought that listing all the things she liked about Terra would make Squall see the truth, she was horribly wrong. If anything, it made Squall even more furious.

"_What_? You even _partnered _with _him_?" he exclaimed, disbelievingly, clenching his hands in fists.

"And here we go again," Rinoa muttered with a long-suffered sigh, already feeling where this would lead to. "I honestly don't see what your problem is, Squall!"

"How can you partner with someone like him? He's almost as bad as Seifer is. Next thing I know, you'll fall in love with this Terra-figure, too. And when that happens and he lets you down like Almasy did, don't come back to me to comfort you."

Rinoa halted at that, her dark eyes narrowing dangerously again. "So what if I do? I don't see the problem there," she argued. "And he's not like Seifer, not by a long shot. You don't even know him, so you have no right to say that!"

"Actually, I do. I bet I know him better than you do. And as far as I know, this is a free country and I can say anything I want," he reminded her, coolly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Whatever. I'm not going to waste my breath because of someone like him. Just don't say I didn't warn you when he starts acting like the jerk that he actually is again."

With that he turned around and left her alone, knowing that for the following days, Rinoa would give him the cold shoulder. At the moment, though, he didn't care. Besides, if Squall had stayed any longer in the room, arguing with his friend, he would've said a lot of things that he would regret later. He always was like that and the same applied to her. And as always, it was left to him to act more mature. But eventually, Rinoa would see just how wrong she was about that Terra. He just had to wait and give her the chance to find it out herself. Too bad that waiting wasn't his forte, either.

* * *

><p>The always clean and cozy kitchen now made an eerily silent impression after they'd had dinner and Laguna and Julia had headed to the living room. Admittedly, it had been pretty bad during dinner time, what with the utterly awkward silence that hung around them. As expected, Laguna had tried practically everything to fill in those silences at first, firing random questions at the two teens, but he only got short answers back. Now, it was well known that the jovial man didn't like long moments of silence at all. It made him feel beyond uncomfortable, but he preferred them more than the enduring of such blunt replies. In the end, when the highly awkward atmosphere had become almost palpable, he'd just given up trying to start a conversation.<p>

For that, Squall had been more than glad, because he'd felt the anger radiate off of Rinoa. The female teen hadn't even looked at him. That had been a little… painful, but it was to be expected after their argument. Julia had given Laguna questioning stares, noticing that something was horribly wrong, but the man had merely shrugged, being pretty clueless himself.

At the moment, Squall stood at the entrance of the kitchen. His arms were crossed against his chest and he was nonchalantly leaning against the doorframe while watching Rinoa do the dishes on her own. Her back was turned to him and she didn't seem to notice the brunet standing there. Not that it mattered much, now that she was ignoring him, anyway.

Squall dipped his head in thought. Sometimes he got the feeling that no matter what he did, he'd always mess things up when it involved Rinoa. Still, he had to take the risk of making amends every time, otherwise she might never talk to him anymore.

With that in mind, he started approaching her. When he stood still next to her, she didn't acknowledge him at all, her eyes still on the plate she was washing. Although now, he could see the anger on her face, what with her lips that were pressed into a thin line and the frown that made her look older by a few years. That was not a good sign. The brunet male took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy, he could see that.

"Let me help," he suggested, as he grabbed a blue and white checked cloth from the top drawer to dry the dishes with.

"You don't have to," was the surprisingly icy response.

Squall halted, because she had honestly never sounded this… indifferent before. Sure, they'd had more fights before, but usually, she would forget all about it after an hour or two. Her words made him think twice about his actions, knowing that he had to be careful with everything he did now, but the brunet didn't quit. He needed to talk to her and this was probably the only time he'd get a chance to do that, and actually succeed.

And so, the male took a plate from the rack and silently got to work. Rinoa didn't speak to him anymore and they did their tasks in pure silence. She didn't even tell him that she'd rather he left her alone. It was as though he was air for her. Squall sighed quietly. He couldn't go on like this. Normally, he didn't mind silence, but when it was Rinoa who was being quiet, you knew that something was wrong.

When he couldn't take it anymore, he blurted out, "I'm… sorry, Rinoa. For everything I said. I didn't mean it."

…Except that he did. But if this would make Rinoa talk to him again, it was better for her not to know the complete truth.

He didn't look at the female teen as he said that, but Rinoa could hear how serious he was. She gave him a sidelong glance. His hair was covering half of his face. It was almost as though he was being shy…

It was quiet between them for a long moment. He was fearing the worst when this silence went on and on, but that was when he saw Rinoa move slightly from the corner of his eyes. However, before he knew what was happening, he saw her aim for his nose. She touched it and when she retracted her hand, he sensed that the tip of his nose was wet… and had something white, soft and fluffy on it.

_What the…_

Deathly silence followed after that, as Rinoa studied his face. The mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes was hard to miss at this point and that made him feel more relieved. At least she wasn't mad at him anymore.

Slowly, Squall reached for the wet spot on his nose and wiped the suds off of it with his index finger. He gave her a "You didn't just do this…" kind of look, to which she merely grinned, almost provocatively.

He sighed, running a gloveless hand through his chocolate brown locks, before suddenly starting his own attack on her. Rinoa yelped in utter surprise and tried to duck under his arm to prevent getting soap on her face, but her reflexes were much slower than the brunet's. It was too late; her hair was now full of the suds. This seemed to be a go-ahead for a new war. Soon enough, the kitchen, and especially the black and white checkered floor, had turned into one big, wet mess, but neither of them seemed to notice nor care about that fact.

As it happened, they were in the middle of their playful fight, when Rinoa's arm accidentally hit the stack of plates left from her, causing one to fall on the ground before she could stop it, and shatter when it hit the tiles. The raven-haired teen quickly stepped back, but because of the soaking wet floor, she slipped and lost her balance. She let out a startled cry when she started to fall.

Squall, however, was quick to react and swiftly grabbed her arm to prevent her from falling and hurting herself. "Watch out!"

Rinoa grabbed upon him, desperately, but it did save her. A quiet beat passed between them as they awkwardly stood close to each other.

When Rinoa stood on her own legs again, she coughed, before muttering quietly, "Wow, uh… thanks."

"Yeah… You surely can't stay mad at me now that I saved your life, right?"

She rolled her eyes, picking up his joke. "Oh, I wouldn't dare."

Squall hesitated slightly, before daring to ask, "So… it's okay between us now?"

"Hmm…" Rinoa pretended to think hard at that, but then a dazzling smile appeared on her face that made Squall's heart skip a beat. "Well… maybe if you help me with cleaning this mess up, I'll forgive you. This mess was your fault, after all."

Squall sighed. "…I was afraid you'd say that… Very well, then."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hmm... is anyone even reading this? Anyways, it won't be long before Squall realizes something important.**


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